A couple of times I have bought cars with leaking cooling systems that have responded very well to additives in the coolant
that allow another couple of years on an older vehicle that would have been otherwised scraped.
What I'm trying to figure out, is the best product specific to the type of head gasket fault, as there are different types of products which may work better with different problems/situations.
1 Small amounts of water entering the oil causing creamy scum on the oil filler cap and upper surfaces of oil pathways.
2 Large amounts of water entering cylinder/s causing quick loss of coolant and overheating
3 Oil entering water causing oily residue on radiator cap and overflow reservoir plastic bottle, but no loss of coolant.
etc etc etc
Some products are like a porcelain, others like copper fillings, silvery fillings, etc etc.
Was wondering if someone could point me towards a tutorial or has good knowledge of this type of problem.
I was also wondering whether re torquing the head would work. Like say #3 cylinder had water cleaning the sparkplug, would re torquing JUST around #3 be a good idea? Or, try an additive first and if that doesnt work try a re torque?
Quite useful to know this stuff, especially if your miles from home and need to get her back without MASSIVE costs.
I religiously change/flush coolant in my own cars
, but you never know.
A definitive guide on this subject would be really useful to a lot of people. Lots of products and instructions online but little of what could be referred to as an unbiased and concise report.