Head Gasket Sealer

[begeta50]

I need to know if anyone in here have ever use one of those head gasket sealer.
I think the head gasket is busted. I get a lot white smog, and I live in Los Angeles. So, I need to know if those sealers really work, and if they are safe to be used.
Thanks

[92E34]

I take it your talking about the Stop leak and like products.

Well how should I word this: Do you want to replace the head gasket today, or rebuild the engine tomorrow?

I put some of that stuff in a 95 mustang Gt to stop a leak on the radiator, it fixed the leak, then glued the thermo shut, and cooked both head gaskets.

I would recommend to NOT put the stuff in.

[winfred]

most of the problems with bmw engine head gaskets i've encountered are not solvable by block seal, i would recommend fixing it instead of causing further problems screwing up the cooling system with sealer

[Dave M]

Is 'smog' the only symptom you're experiencing? Try a search on head gasket symptoms. You should be seeing a drop in coolnt level if its burning it and/or a mixing of oil and coolant in either the coolant or sump. How do your plugs look? Does the engine miss at higher rpm? Have you done a comp. test recently? Think a leak down test?

before you dump junk in your engine, make sure something IS broken. Let us know what your plugs look like and what happening with your coolant level etc.

[begeta50]

If I need to replace the head gasket, can someone tell me how hard is it on the scale from 1 to 10?

[attack eagle]

if you have to ask how hard it is, and you ask about leak stop problems, for you it's an 11.

[SnakeyesTx]

IF you drove it smogging, and it overheated, you can't fix it. If that head isn't cracked yet, the head and block are definitely warped anyway.

I heard a joke once that the only sealer that would ever truly work is concrete. Don't think that's gonna help though :/

As for difficulty rating.. honestly... you're looking at a perfect 10 for work involved. This isn't as simple as "Take off head, replace gasket, done." This is more like "Disassemble and catalog the entire top end of the engine, machine head surface flat and true again (rebuild head), verify deck for trueness, install new gasket, and new torque-to-yield head bolts, reinstall entire top end, pray it works right the first time.

Oh... and if a bunch of coolant got in the oil pan, take off the pan and verify the rod/mains didn't get washed out and scored. If that happened... bottom end rebuild on top of the already top end rebuild. And last but not least... replace O2 sensor since coolant ruined the current one (I did all the above steps but replaced the entire engine instead... and guess what? I need that O2 sensor still :D)

[brick8]

Don't be so hard on him for asking a question. Replacing a head gasket isn't so bad on an I6, but you need the right tools, plenty of time, a good place to work and a good manual. Better yet, find someone who has done one before to lend a hand. Find out the name of a good machine shop to check out the old head before you put it back on. I'm sure the other guys here have other good advice for you. Of course, you ought to make sure that the problem is truly a head gasket and not, for example, an overly rich mixture...

[SnakeyesTx]

I wasn't trying to be rude. The concrete thing was just to break some tension. Generally an over-rich situation warrants black smoke, not white. White is usually coolant trying to be compressed, fired, and shot out the tailpipe. I think a really good test would be to back the car up to a wall of some sort, let the white smoke plume against it and see if you get that oily sensation of coolant by feel, and the smell from the accumulations on it.

[Ferret]

Hrrm, if it's white smogging, I suppose it could be a head gasket. However, 525's are a complete pain in the arse to rebuild.

Well, probably one of the easiest to actually change the head gasket, but it's what you have to do around the hg change that's the pain in the arse.

I'll explain a worst case scenario like I had:
1) White smoking, gentle misfire and coolant was boiling over like crazy.
2) Assumed it was the head gasket, first mistake.
3) Stripped it down and rebuilt it - not realising that the two tiny hairline cracks in the head had just been cracked wide open.
4) Restarted it, running fine, running fine, oshit what's that blue smoke?
5) Spent 4 months looking for a replacement 525 head gave up and put a 520 on it.
6) Busted valve in 520 head, gotta come back off again.
7) Been offered replacement 525 engine/gearbox at £200 which he'll fit for nothing... Tempted.

[Ross]

Hrrm, if it's white smogging, I suppose it could be a head gasket. However, 525's are a complete pain in the arse to rebuild.

Well, probably one of the easiest to actually change the head gasket, but it's what you have to do around the hg change that's the pain in the arse.

I'll explain a worst case scenario like I had:
1) White smoking, gentle misfire and coolant was boiling over like crazy.
2) Assumed it was the head gasket, first mistake.
3) Stripped it down and rebuilt it - not realising that the two tiny hairline cracks in the head had just been cracked wide open.
4) Restarted it, running fine, running fine, oshit what's that blue smoke?
5) Spent 4 months looking for a replacement 525 head gave up and put a 520 on it.
6) Busted valve in 520 head, gotta come back off again.
7) Been offered replacement 525 engine/gearbox at £200 which he'll fit for nothing... Tempted.
Busted valve? Is that what was causing all you trouble??