Hi everyone,
94 4runner with 3vze here.......I have a leaking head gasket, its burning coolant out of the exhaust and losing a little sometimes at the rear drivers side of the motor. Sometimes it does sometimes it doesnt ?
A mechanic friend suggested Blue Devil Head Gasket Sealer, he said it could work for me , given my situation.
Has anyone used this product with any success ????

 

No cooling system stopleak is ever any good.
Causes more problems than it can solve.
Ruins radiators and heater cores.
You know what is needed to repair your truck.
Bite the bullet.

 

Go punch your hack mechanic friend in the face for suggesting something this stupid. That crap dont work, pay to do it right or use that crap and clog the cooling system up totally.

 

If its an emergency situation... well.. ok it may work temporarily but it won't be a permanent and/or promising repair.

Repair the cyldiner head gaskets the proper way and save the rest of your cooling system the clogging affects of the "head gasket sealer."

 

Blue devil is some pretty incredible stuff, and should not be compared to your average $10 bottle of head gasket repair. It is more than 6 times better....which is why it costs 6 times more.



I wish I knew about it when the gasket popped on my last 22RE, I would have been wheeling this thing the last few years. A friend used it in his AW11 MR2 years ago as a last resort, and beat the ever living hell out of it for a long time after that without an issue. It never showed signs of failure again (it's now pulled apart being built as a chump car. No signs of damage from the failed gasket or the Blue Devil).

Make sure you follow the directions, it's not a simple process. IIRC you empty all antifreeze out of the system, and pull the tstat, then you run it with water in it for awhile, then add the blue devil, then you have to flush things out and re-fill it.


I work in the Commercial department of an auto parts store, and deal with a number of very good shops on a daily basis who swear by it. They all still know that fixing it right is better, but this is a solid plan B that will keep a vehicle on the road for several years at a fraction of the cost.

 

I've used it a few times. sometimes it worked, others it didn't. napa has this stuff that comes in a bright green bottle and its basically liquid kevlar, i have heard good things about this. however last week i tried it on an escort, and i still ended up yankin the head. a lot of times our customers simply cannot afford a head job, so we offer to do this for them with no guarantee it will fix the car or not ˟˟˟˟ it up in the process. i personally wouldn't use it unless i had no other options.

 

I have used blue devil in a few no win situations. as a hail mary pass if you will. it worked 2 out of 3 times I have been involved in it. the one time was pretty much a lost cause. it can work. how well and for how long depends on the specifics of every situations. if you can swing it I would fix it right.

 

I've heard the same stories, some good some bad....There is manyy more stories (and comments) on YouTube about this stuff and the other brand sealers. Some work chemically and some work just by putting in little flakes of metal which can obviously clog up the tubes in rads and heater cores and whatnot but the ones that seal chemically are much better. It's a chemical process which the hardening process only starts when it comes in contact with air? (Which is how some ac stop leak works) and I believe it when it comes in contact with very hot spots (where combustion is leaking in)....then only will it "work" by clogging the head gasket or crack. They are not all the same tho so just because the cheapy ones didn't work doesn't mean the other ones won't work or are junk, but obviously not as good as changing the parts. Search on YouTube and you will see people with there cars billowing out white smoke, then they put whatever stuff in and they record the exhaust and after a few minutes it literally stops. If you're short on money or need to get home then it can be well worth it but you need to follow the directions to a T, if you don't, don't expect it to work. Also can go on advance auto website, look up the part and look at the reviews but normally there's only a few and searching on YouTube or any search engine would bring the best and most amount of results.

 

The Bus garage foreman for the local school district swears by this stuff.

Like any other product the directions must be followed 100%.

With them it is a down time issue overnight compared to several days.

Yes I have used this with good results about 3 years till I rebuilt the engine