gasket issues?

[garylau]

I haven't been on here in awhile, mostly because I no longer have my Lumina. It has since been replaced with a 2.4 '96 Grand Am GT and a '92 Jetta. I am about to try to help a friend diagnose and fix a problem with his 3.1 Beretta. He is moving soon and needs to get it done and I could use a little advice, so I instantly thought of you guys. Anyway, here's the deal. He's got a slow coolant loss. He took it to a local shop and they said it was a head gasket and quoted him $1000, which he can't afford. I talked to a buddy who is more familiar with these motors than I am, and he's not too convinced it's the head gasket. I should mention the shop didn't seem to look it over very thoroughly, and the shop has a bad reputation (he didn't know this when he went there). Also, the oil seemed unusually black, but the oil level was okay. The tech said there was antifreeze under the car, but wouldn't an externally leaking head gasket have a quicker leak than this? I'm also going to check it out tomorrow to see if the exhaust is unusually white. Any advice to help me figure this out is appreciated.

P.S. - I know there is already a similar thread to this, but his symptoms seem a little different. I'd also like to say this site has been very helpful to me in the past, thanks everyone! (kissing up a little for a quicker reply)

[pocket-rocket]

Go to the parts store and rent a coolant system pressure checker. You take your radiator cap off, and screw the cap with the checker in place. Then you pump up the coolant system and normally watch to see if the gauge goes down. Instead, I would listen to see if you can hear where it leaks since the engine doesn't need to run to do this. Hopefully the leak is large enough for this to work for you guys.

[garylau]

Okay, there is no external leak. I think there is a hint of an antifreeze odor in the exhaust, but I'm not 100% on that. I'm guessing that means it's the head gasket. There's nothing else it would be if it's getting into the combustion chambers, right? I'm going to check the plugs and see if one is cleaner than the others as if it's been "steam-cleaned" by the burning antifreeze as I saw mentioned in a different thread. I'm thinking that since it's an internal leak the pressure checker won't help, right?

[pocket-rocket]

Another way I have diagnosed head gasket is more then normal steam in the exhaust while it's running, or steam still coming out when it should have warmed up enough to stop steaming. Yet another way was adding coolant to the car, not running, then it all started spewing out and then some when it was run. It was also bubbling pretty good as well because compression pressure was being pushed into the coolant system. That one I couldn't find the area of the gaskets that were leaking, so I took the heads to the machine shop to have them cleaned and pressure checked. They came back looking nice, and the shop must not have found anything (I got there after the machinist had left), and the van has run fine since. Did you do the test with the car running to see if the smell got stronger if you pumped up the pressure on the tester more?

[garylau]

No, I haven't had a chance to use a pressure checker yet.