My son has a 2005 Honda Civic. He has procured a new job that pays well, and will require a 40-minute drive. Unfortunately, the car has blown a head gasket. We have a good friend who’s a mechanic who will fix it for us at a good price, but he can’t do it right away.
The mechanic swears that a particular brand of head gasket sealer will keep the car driveable until it can be fixed. I don’t drive, and my son is a young man without extensive car experience.
So:
How much of the water/antifreeze should he drain from the radiator? A lot? Just enough for the stuff to fit?
I bought a 16-ounce bottle. How much of it should we use?
We live in California. The weather is mild, but the traffic is ridiculous. Can this stuff, if properly applied according to the directions, really keep him from breaking down on the highway?
I don’t think that the head is warped, if that makes any difference.
can’t answer with the information given. There are different possible failure modes for a head gasket.
failure between the combustion chamber and water jacket. This kind of failure will both let coolant into the cylinder, and allow combustion gases into the water jacket. This also generally results in an overheat condition from the hot combustion gases blowing into the water jacket.
failure between a water passage and oil passage. This will generally give you oil and coolant mixing. Whether it’s oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil depends on the specific failure. Both are bad.
failure between an oil or coolant passage and the outside of the engine, which will result in external leaks.
a sealer probably won’t help with 1) because combustion pressures are too high. It might help with 2) depending on the specific failure; the oiling system typically runs between 15-60 psi of pressure while the cooling system is between 15-20 psi. Might help with 3) if it’s an external coolant leak.
any car with a failed head gasket is on borrowed time. I would never trust a miracle “sealer.” most of them consist of a suspension of particles of “stuff” which collect at the leak site and hopefully plug it. but you’re always taking the risk that they’ll plug other stuff up too.
I never heard of this stuff. I never believe in these “miracle cures” either. I read the Amazon reviews on this product, and there are a ton of people who say it worked great. Maybe it does, and I’m old fashioned, out of date.
On the other hand, there were even more reviews by people who said the product did exactly what I thought it would - clog up everything, cause overheating, and still not fix the leak.
Well, seeing as he really wants a car that will get him to work reliably and not have a bunch of issues further down the road, I’m inclined to think that the possibility of other stuff getting clogged is significant enough to reconsider that course of action. Thanks all.
If you use it correctly per the instructions, the risks of clogging something else up are pretty minimal. The problems usually arise when people use too much of it.
And the actual head gasket specific stuff does have sealers that are designed to set up when exposed to very hot temperatures, so they absolutely can fix a coolant-to-combustion chamber leak. In fact, if it works (a bit of a big “if”), there’s a decent chance it’ll hold up indefinitely so it could be worth risking not doing the repair.
The only situation I’d be a little wary of is if there is evidence of coolant in the oil. For one thing, you don’t want the sealer to get into the crankcase, but you also don’t want to put a ton of miles on the car if it turns out the leak isn’t fixed and the oil is getting contaminated. But if it only seems to be a coolant-to-cylinder leak (white smoke, bubbles in the radiator) it’s worth a try.