I have blown a head gasket. The Midget has been purring along quite well,
but it chugged a bit when I started it up in the morning, then as I revved
it, the engine smoothed out. That was probably because overnight, water was
being sucked into the cylinder past the gap in the gasket, not quite big
enough to be called "blown"
Yesterday I was driving to work, and on a hill I looked at teh temp guage and
it was reading hot. I pulled over, popped the bonnet and the pressure cap,
after covering the latter with a rag. Water gushed out. I removed the
plastic filler cap (this is a 1500) and could see no water. A nearby
resident gave me a gallon of water, which I installed. It took about 3/4
gallon to fill it. Thanked the guy and climbed into the driver's seat to
start it up and continue to work. Pfffffuutttter pffffutttter pffffuttttter.
Running on about 2 cylinders and pouring white vapor from the tailpipe. No
question as to what this is.
After AAAing home (getting my money's worth this year with the 3rd call) I
pulled the head last night and #2 and #3 cylinders had about a half cup of
water sitting in them. Stripped the head and took it to a racing machine
shop today to be magna fluxed and skimmed level, as well as cleaned. Hope
this will do the fix. I assume it is the head that is most likely to not be
true, over the block. Is this a safe assumption?
--David C.
|