HEAD GASKET Repairing Sealants - DO THEY WORK ?

Yes it works, I'm it now...

K&W NanoTechnology Permanent Head Gasket & Block Repair, 32 fl. oz. (401232)



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Don't bother.
Once it's blown....it's blown.
....FYI....water mixed with oil = bad news for your engine.

Replace it.

Last Edited by Useless Cookie Eater on 01/04/2012 12:05 AM

Pull the head. Take it to the shop for crack test and maybe 10 thou plane...

You need to check between the water jackets in the block and the bore. Sounds like it may have corroded in between. If so, you also need to take in your block and have it "decked".

In aus it is about $60 for a crack test on a head


Well worth making sure it is right from the start

A mechanic can pressure test and tell you if you are losing water. But bear in mind it's a lot more pressure than usually runs thru your motor. So it could just blow the gasket clean away anyway

Sealants are like russian roulette for your car. It'll fix it, but you WILL get a nasty surprise when you least expect it.

A couple years ago I bought a '99 GMC Jimmy with, apparently a faulty head gasket. The pseudo-dealership i bought it from used that sealant stuff long enough to sell the vehicle. Lasted three months after I bought. It is really pricey to have it done which I'm sure you are aware, but in my opinion completely worth it.

i agree with most on here, if it is head gasket then u must put new gasket on. if u wanna get rid of it quick then the other suggestions that u have heard about here r true for a temporary fix.

VG30's and 33's used to blow head gaskets between cylinders. I do not believe the sealant will help you. It would be like a 24 hr band aid. Next failure would be catastrophic (engine replacement). As of right now it can be fixed, but it should be fixed right.

Im suprised at how many half ass technicians there are around here giving out questionable advice.

No wait, sorry, forgot. This is GLP.

I think your question would be better asked in www.clubxterra.com

Op you still there? Look, I own a 300ZX Turbo and I've worked on the VG30ET and swapped it for a VG33E and turboed it.

DO NOT USE ANY OF THESE SEALANTS ON THIS MOTOR. You WILL FUCK IT UP and then will not be able to salvage the motor.

Do it properly.

Yes, it is a pain in the ass to pull the heads off especially if you still have a lot of the stock crap/idle controls in the way, but it is possible to do it in the car. I have never done it in the car, but I've seen pictures of many who do. When I did my engine, I just pulled it out with an engine hoist.

Nice cars...always thought the styling of that car was way ahead of its time....but what a bitch to work on....especially with the turbo.
You literally need a shoehorn to fit anything else under the hood.

If you have to ask then this job is beyond you. Bars stop leak and run it through an auction.

I also forgot to mention, my original VG30E did use up a bit of water and it did have bubbles and my 33 might have bubbles in the radiator but it isn't a head gasket...

To be sure buy an exhaust gas test kit and test the radiator fluid. That or rent one of those cooling system pressurizers and see if there are any external leaks. Then check to see if there is water in the cylinders through the spark plug hole. Yes, this would make things worse but you should be parking that car instead of relying on it.

Who knows when it will REALLY blow. Not sure if it's realistic for it to hydrolock, but its a possibility.

1988 FORD RANGER...CRACKED BLOWN HEAD..WATER SHOOTING OUT OF HEAD BY SPARK PLUG..

2- 4 oz aluminum powder tubes...28,000 miles later still sealed..GOOD LUCK= 7.86 CENTS.

It's hit and miss, but the same principle that stops it leaking can plug up the channels in your radiator and anywhere else water is restricted. If you've got aluminum heads, then you really need to have them checked for straightness.

Yeah it was a bitch to get the stock turbo out of the stock location with the motor in the car. You could fit bigger turbos down there though.

I did everything for simplicity and quickly taking it apart though. Relocated the turbo to the top, modified a maxima intake manifold, removed a lot of the idle crap and vacuum lines(didn't work anyway), electric fan, etc.

I know doing that kind of stuff and not keeping the car stock isn't everyone's cup of tea.

I have seen the stock engine bay from factory and it does look like a nightmare. I've heard working on 300ZX Twin Turbos with the VG30DETT is much more of a nightmare than on mine.

Yeah it was a bitch to get the stock turbo out of the stock location with the motor in the car. You could fit bigger turbos down there though.

I did everything for simplicity and quickly taking it apart though. Relocated the turbo to the top, modified a maxima intake manifold, removed a lot of the idle crap and vacuum lines(didn't work anyway), electric fan, etc.

I know doing that kind of stuff and not keeping the car stock isn't everyone's cup of tea.

I have seen the stock engine bay from factory and it does look like a nightmare. I've heard working on 300ZX Twin Turbos with the VG30DETT is much more of a nightmare than on mine.

yeah, I know there's no other way than to change the gaskets

I was just fooling myself and kicking around the idea of a miracle cure

I've got a lot of work ahead of me than

Have you tried just tightening all the bolts ?

I've done more than one engine with no or reused gaskets and some with no silicone even.

and then what happened?

I am a self taught mechanic and gearhead and have been working on engines since i was 6 years old, quite literally. DO NOT use any type of head gasket sealant, as it will make matters worst within a few days or weeks, including causing water pump seal failure which leads to water pump failure and leaking, clogged or obstructing water passages in the head and especially the radiator,and jamming of the thermostat. This will cause an increase in engine temperature and eventually cause the water to escape more rapidly.

Steam coming from the exhaust is completely normal in all modern cars on cool or cold days, as the catalytic converter converts certain combustion byproducts to water. Water dripping from the exhaust pipe under all weather conditions is also normal until the exhaust system heats up.

If you are losing only a small amount of water replace the radiator cap which might have a defective seal or a worn out pressure regulator and check the hoses, especially the heater hoses going to the heater core, the small hose that goes from the radiator to the water reservoir tank, and the cap on the water reservoir tank. Gasses getting into the cooling system is not necessary the result of combustion gasses leaking into the cooling system, in fact I seriously doubt that is your problem based in your symptoms.

If it were a head gasket leak between a water passage and the combustion chamber, steam production from the exhaust would INCREASE DRAMATICALLY as the engine warmed up and the combustion gasses would cause a contamination of the coolant that looks exactly as if oil has leaked into the coolant (white gooey material floating under the radiator cap)


Of you want my guess , air is being drawn into the cooling system while the engine is cooling off after being shut down because of a defective radiator cap seal when the engine cools or the radiator to reservoir hose has a leak. Air entering the cooling system form anywhere displaces water causing it to be forced out of the reservoir overflow. Bubbles that are emitting smoke emerging from the open radiator cap are in fact a symptom of a cracked head or leaking head gasket, but pure air bubbles are not indicative of a blown head gasket or or cracked head, they are most likely the result of a leaking heater core, hose connection or radiator cap.

If you determine you do have a blown head gasket, leaking radiator or leaking water seals and your car is a beater and you're just trying to get a few extra miles out of it, the adding of a simple egg to the radiator will temporally plug leaks and works as well as the most expensive sealant. Hen it starts leaking again feed it another egg. The egg white finds and plugs the leaks and cooks into a material harder than lead.

I'm mostly high performace and don't mind a little drip here and there.

Get a CLUE already. When a head gasket blows, the car is basically.......TRASH

Horse manure. All it takes to blow a head gasket is an improperly torqued bolt at the factory. I bought a 2000 GMC Sierra for 1000 dollars with 160 g's on it that was smoking, had water in the oil and oil in the water and was smoking so badly the police pulled me over and told me i couldn't drive it down the road because it was obscuring the vision of drivers behind me.

A felpro head gasket set costing 60 dollars and weekend of fun pulling and cleaning the cast iron heads and engine block and replacing the head gasket, intake gasket, valve seals , exhaust manifold gaskets and egr gasket resulted in a perfectly running truck that i have since put 180,000 miles on with no relapse of problems, only minor repairs such as worn out water pump and alternator. The guy I bought the truck from offered me 4000 dollars a month after I bought it from him for it because he was told the same thing you just said.

^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^

What about doing a compression test on the engine?

Better yet a leakdown test. Compression tests are grat for detecting leaking valves but if it is a minute leak a compression test won't detect it.

If all cylinders are nearly equal in leakdown timing, there is no leak between the combustion chamber and the cooling channels. I could look at the OP's car about five minutes and tell him precisely what the problem is but his description is imprecise.

Replace. No debate there.

There's a cheap kit available to test the water in the radiator for emission by-products. That would confirm even a small leak.

Usually you will see either a lumpy, chocolate milk colored substance along your dipstick, or similarly colored small globs in your radiator fluid. Check the radiator fluid when the engine is cold.

Steam and water blowing out your tailpipe is normal. All manner of condensation occurs inside. It's not unusual to drive a considerable distance and still see water blowing out. As for the loss of water, that could just be that the seal on your radiator cap is getting old.

You could also pull the plugs and see if they have a funky, whitish substance building up on them.

Yeah, the thing is with modern designs the engine compartment is so packed and there is so much 'stuff' that has to be removed before you can get to the head itself, the average person is incapable of doing the job. You have to remembered that this 'stuff' not only has to be removed, it has to be replaced exactly like it was or more than likely the engine won't run at all. I believe in the car described, the engine has to be completely removed from the engine compartment, adding to the cost and complexity. In a typical GM, Ford or Dodge v-8 or v-6 mounted in the traditional position of pre 2000 vintage, the entire engine can be rebuilt without even removing it from the engine compartment, including crankshaft, valvetrain, heads, cylinder bores , the whole works.

A good mechanic like myself will charge 2000 dollars to replace a head gasket in a car like the op described simply because of the complex nature of the design. If it were a typical design like a traditionally mounted v-8 I would charge him less that 400 dollars + materials.

No they don't work even the best aviation grade wont work.
Because by the time you notice you have a blown head gasket, you have probably already got head/block face warpage or cracks.

What is a fair price for a head gasket job on a '93 Olds? Mine is original owner with less than 80,000 miles, and yet the blue book value is less than the estimate a mechanic gave me of $1,200 to do the job. It seemed high, as I had done a headgasket job myself in my youth, but nowadays you have to take half of the car apart just to get access to the head bolts, and I don't have the patience or memory to put hundreds of pieces back together again, lol. Is $1,200 a fair price or a rip-off?

Usually if you have a cast iron head and block mad eof the same material ,warpage or cracks are not a common problem unless the car is severely overheated, but the thing is most modern cars have aluminum heads. With aluminum heads, if your temperature gauge goes in the red you are assured serious problems will immediately develop. This was done to reduce weight and was one on the stupidest things ever thought up because the difference in the thermal expansion rate between the two materials results in inevitable head gasket, warpage and head cracking problems