My cars fan recently died out and it over heated while i was not in the car. All the coolant leaked out of the resiviour cap and there was white smoke everywhere. When i ran to turn the car off after taking out the key the car still did not stop so i had to put it in first and let go of the clutch to stall it out. The good part through this was that it didnt seem like there was any imidiate damage. The radiatior is still fine and after filling it back up there are no leaks. However the car is running real rough right now. At low rpms it very "jittery" for lack of a better word. I called up a mechanic friend of mine and he says that it sounds like the head gasket.
My question to you is if anybody has any opinons on this, any ideas what the problem is?
Also if it is the gasket how hard is that to replace myself?
Any help is greatly appriciated.

 

Sounds like a head gasket. If you do the job yourself be sure to check the heads to see if they are warped. I like to take the motor mount bolts out so I can jack up the side of the motor I am working on. It makes it much easier to get the exaust manifolds off and spark plugs out. I would change the oil after the job but before startup incase any water got into the oil. If you need any other help you can shoot me some mail and I will be happy to help out. You must remove the exaust pipe from the car first.

 

I would drain the oil before the job and look at it, i believe one of the symptoms that could show up if you have a blown head gasket is the oil could be lighter in color, but that could also indicate other things. Someone correct me if im wrong.

 

Its a good idea to look at the first but do keep the drain plug out incase water gets in during disassembly. Sounds like your on the right track. Good luck!

 

if if blew the head gasket it will fail a few ways (on a sbc anyway)

- dump coolant in the oil
-leak coolant externally
-leak coolant into the cylinder

usually it dumps coolant into the cylinder, so you will have white smoke out the tail pipe and it will smell sort of sweet (with the severity of the rough runing you described

but with th coolant going everywhere I would consider the opti-spark getting moisture in it

**** luck

 

Transferring to an Engine Tech Forum, thanks.

 

replacing the head gasket by yourself could be tedious. you would have to take off the intake manifold and the exhaust manifold on the side you are working on and the head too, then you have to see if its warped..

if the head is warped id use this time to upgrade from stock heads to something that flows better since youll have to either get them milled or replaced anyway

 

the only way the head will get warped is if it is removed incorrectly it isnt just warpd. the proper way to remove the heads are the outside bolts to the inside bolts. instalatio is the oposite.
by outside to in i mean do 2 on the pilly side than 2 on the firewall side and so on until you get them all there are 16 total.

 

You for sure with out a doubt blew the head gasket. If you know how to rebuild engines, then it will be fun to do, if not your screwed. You have to take apart the complete top half of the motor. Be careful when doing this to not warp the heads. The best thing to do is go to a parts store and get the mechanics book for you car. It will tell you how to take them off, and what to torque them at when you put them back on.Good Luck