I think I've a bad head gasket. 1999 Taurus. I am losing lots of water, but I don't have a visible leak anywhere. I notice no loss of horsepower, and my oil still looks nice and clear (no water in the oil, I am sure).
Could be leaking into the exhaust from the head gasket? If so, would using a stop-leak hurty anything further?
Opinions?
Reduce cooling capability of radiator, reduce heating capability of heater core, and possible creation of hot spots in the engine, all from stop-leak binding to already small orifices in these components, further reducing the coolant flow ability.
Best to fully diagnose and repair ASAP.
PatLewis wrote:
|I think I've a bad head gasket. 1999 Taurus. I am losing lots of |water, but I don't have a visible leak anywhere. I notice no loss of |horsepower, and my oil still looks nice and clear (no water in the |oil, I am sure). | |Could be leaking into the exhaust from the head gasket? If so, would |using a stop-leak hurty anything further?
If it were mine, I'd try it. I'd suggest the small size of Bar's Leaks as the least intrusive thing I know of. Most carmakers add a pelletized stopleak at the factory to take care of the occasional small leak. Rex in Fort Worth
Are you getting white smoke out of the tailpipe? If you are, then you are probably leaking antifreeze into the cylinder. No matter what you will have to pull the head to fix the problem. The stop leak might slow things down a bit.
----------------- Alex
Have you looked at all the 'freeze plugs'?
You can lose a lot of water from a pinhole in a Welch plug, or from a leaking water pump, hose, etc and it may not be obvious at first.
Some of the Ford V6 engines had some internal head gasket or O ring problems. Don't remember now exactly what was involved. Might be worth looking into recalls.
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