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head gasket repair

I pass thru this newsgroup occasionally since I bought an '06 mustang a year ago. I think this is my first post and I apologize for it not being mustang related. But I believe there are many knowledgeable mechanics hear that may have some good advice.

My brother had his head gasket repaired on his '98 Monte Carlo 3.1 V6 (POS) as the oil had a milky look to it. After repair the milky oil returned. Now mech. says block may be cracked.

Question: Should the mechanic been able to know the difference between bad head gasket and cracked block?

Or maybe the repair job was not done correctly to begin with and the mechanics work needs to be redone, ie. another new head gasket. BTW, the work was done at the local GM dealership.

How would you handle this situation? Any advice will be appreciated.

Randy '06 Mustang

Reply to
Randy E Schaben
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I'm going to comment on this because I've done some work on the 3.1 and 3.4 GM engines and this was when I was a Ford tech. Go figure. It would be hard for the tech to find the cracked block when just replacing the head gaskets or the cracked heads, especially if there was a visible fault from the head gaskets or the heads. Also, the tech really wouldn't know the history of the car. Did the oil just start getting milky or did the driver run the engine hot for a half hour? Remember too, that to do a thorough job of finding the cracks the block should be checked by a machine shop, impossible to do with the block in the car.

Whatever the problem now, the dealer now just wants to replace everything to make sure the problem goes away. You will probably find the the dealer's estimate will be more than what the car is worth.

Reply to
Kruse

Thanks for the feed back, Kruse. I don't think my brother put many miles on the car after the gasket went out, and I don't think he drove it hot. I guess the mechanic changed the oil (and flushed the engine?) again. Yesterday my brother said the oil looked milky after the second oil change. But today after he put a few more miles on it he said the oil didn't look bad. So maybe the engine is alright. I don't know. But he says he is going to trade the car in since it needs some other work too.

Your feed back made sense to me. Actually made me feel better about the mechanic also. Sometimes mechanics get bad raps against them when they don't deserve it. Thanks again for the feedback.

Randy

Reply to
Randy E Schaben

Maybe, maybe not. Had a mechanical fuel pump go out on my parents car when I was still in HS... Mixing gas with the oil. I figured they were too stupid to change the oil. So I went to change it... sure enough... it was about half gasoline.

How is the car driven? If it only does short trips, some milkiness will be normal. It needs to get up to temp for awhile to burn off the normal moisture.

Reply to
Brent P

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