iamsuperbleeder

Can a head gasket give hints that it's on it's way out, or that it's leaking a little bit?

Here's the senario...

Almost every morning now for the past month or so, I'll start the truck, it'll idle low and lope for a few seconds (almost sputtering to the point of stalling, but it'll stay running), then after about 5 seconds of running, the idle will smooth out and it's fine all day. Also, just after it smooths out, I do notice the slight sweet smell of antifreeze No smoke (unless it's cold outside, but that's a given), just a little smell; unless I'm just paranoid and I'm imagining the smell...

Now I looked for coolant leaks, I have none... It does seem to be losing coolant, although a very little amount very slowly; Last time I checked it is when I flushed my heater core, and it was down in the radiator to about the top of the fins. I just flushed the heater core last weekend and topped it off then, but I haven't checked the level again since; I'll pop the cap off this weekend and see where the level is.

The oil looks goos; no antifreese getting into it. Same goes the other way around; no oil in the antifreese.

But basically, can a head gasket just barely leak like that into a cylinder without any oil or antifreese mixing, and just cause a little rough running and a little loss of coolant, or would just jut go and let loose?

This weekend I'll check the level, pull the plugs and see if one looks a little "off" so to speak, and I might borrow a buddy's compression tester and see what I get...



BTW, 91 22re

With 291k on the odometer and the head never have been separated from the block, it honestly wouldn't really surprise me... I was kinda hoping I could run the motor to 300k though so I could retire it and drop in an LCE long block



Thanks for any responce in advance guys!

87LVRunner

I'm in the same boat as you, but my leak is more evident. My engine was doing the same thing as yours about two months ago. I didn't think much of it because the truck sat for a year. Once warm, it ran great. I went out a couple days ago to throw on my new Budbuilt skid and found red coolant on the ground. No overheating, only ran rough cold, no water in the oil. I can see the leak above the draincock, above the freezeplug, and above the heater tube, right from the headgasket (the other three are dry). Yay. So, ordered parts from LC Engineering including the gasket set, new head bolts, and a new timing chain. I figure I will have the head machined and get her back together. I'm at 242,000 miles so it's about right and the third time I will be doing this (on mulitple vehicles). It's not a terrible job. I guess it gives me something to do right?

algranger

you may have a very VERY slight internal leak. check the condition of your spark plugs. also before you start it in the morning shine a flashlight into the cylinders and see if you can see any lime green in there smiling out at you.
i cant think of what else could cause the rough run...
generally once the HG starts letting go it just gets worse.. until you cant drive it. if you know how to replace it (sounds like you do if you wanna build an LCE motor) i would do it soon or just get what is left out of that HG and have the LCE on hand ready to go in
PM me if and when you git rid of that motor i will buy your EFI manifold and all that crap

just a 22re

well from someone that dont even have a headgasket anymore

well mine about 3-4k miles ago was doing what your saying then about 1k ago it would just randomly do it when driving then it got hot and i had no coolant topped her off and drove some more at satart up it would idl;e at about 200 give or take a few rpms and chug but when it ran it ran

now if i even want to drive it around the block i have to make sure the coolant and the oil is full or it wont be when i get back in the garage talk about no gaskets lol i say its your head gasket playing hide and go pluck yourself lol

abecedarian

I've been mulling on this a while and I'm not sure I can get you a good answer.
I would think that if it were the headgasket, you'd have rough idle issues and coolant odor every time the engine cooled off and you went to start it, not just the first start of the day. If it is the HG, with a leak that small, I'm not sure you would see it on a compression test. A leakdown would be more likely to produce evidence by blowing bubbles up the radiator since you leave the cylinder under pressure for a while. I'd be more inclined to think of a leak in the throttle body or manifold causing coolant to leak in from that direction.

toyota4x4907

Mine does almost the exact same thing- a light hint of sweetness in the exhaust when first started, and once its warm, it smells normal. BUT..mine doesnt almost stall. I am also losing coolant at a moderate rate, about a reservoir tanks worth every 7 to 10 days.
One thing that makes me think otherwise though is that my roommates '96 taco 2.7L has sweet smelling exhaust at cold start. And earlier today, as I was walking back to my truck from the gym, I got a wiff of the exhaust from both a newish Subie and a Ford Exploder that just started and they were sweet smelling like mine....

newbie93pickup

there is no doubt that if your loosing coolant and its not on the ground its in the motor and that is NEVER a good thing. im with Algranger on this if your going to run it i would have the parts handy to fix it....

i think that i would just get the parts and start troubleshooting and fixing it before it lets go at about 60 and you poor coolant into a high reving motor and cause more damage to your wallet.... just my way of thinking i suppose... that happened to a friends 22re a few years ago ended up doing a full motor because of it instead of a HG.

iamsuperbleeder

Thanks for all the feed-back guys; at least it all proves my suspicions!

Well I might be able to get just a block from a budy of mine here shortly, and if so, I'll just get a motor together; I could probably have it all done in the matter of 2 months, but that's 2 months after the holidays; I have other things I'm spending money on right now, lol.

Odly enough, it hasn't done it the past few days. I've been starting up my video camera on my phone and recording the tach at startup to see if I can catch the sputter on video (cause I know how everyone likes videos ), but damn if it refuses to do it on cue...

abecedarian

So, it appears I'm the only one that thinks the issue might lie elsewhere?
yep-I'm a rebel.

You said the last time you checked your coolant was when you flushed your heater core (I'm assuming when you started) and it was at the top of the radiator fins. That's only a 8 or so ounces of coolant to fill the radiator all the way up... but when was the last time it was checked before that?

I know you've been through a lot on your truck and it may be the headgasket going. I just don't see the point in jumping straight at the expensive stuff until you've eliminated the cheaper options, or rather 'easier' to fix options.

Running rough may have absolutely nothing to do with your coolant loss.

iamsuperbleeder

That's always possible too...

my philosophy and way of thinking is to just jump right to the worst case senario, that way if that's what happens, you're not as upset; but if it's something less severe, then it makes you much more happy

abecedarian

I hear you. What I worry about is you'll order the parts to do the head gasket, or even the complete longblock and find it's the throttle body or intake manifold leaking coolant into the engine.... or even more dismaying, you'll get the work done and find you still have coolant loss and the rough running was caused by a faulty coolant temp switch.

Just saying. Do the testing first- pressurize the cooling system and look for external leaks (or even leaks internal to the intake) and perform a leak down to scope out internal engine leaks to the cooling system.... test your sensors.

iamsuperbleeder

oh yeah, definately man, thanx!