Head Gasket Leak?

It probably is a head gasket leak. One reliable test you could perform that is also inexpensive is a compression check. It sounds like the leak is between one of the cylinders and a water jacket; a compression check would reveal one cylinder with low compression, or possibly two next to each other with low compression.

I believe you can get a compression tester for under $50.

--Geoff

His car has already flunked a pretty reliable test of head gasket integrity....

I once had a car with a blown head gasket that flunked the bubble test but had compression within specs on all cylinders.

Really? Did you find the source of the leak?

I agree, the overheating and bubbling into the coolant reservoir is probably enough to condemn a headgasket in this case. I understand there are also kits you can get that will detect the presence of exhaust gasses in the coolant; these can be used to confirm a head gasket diagnosis when the problem is less obvious.

But a bubbler that passed a compression check, eh? Wow. I didn't know that could happen. Did one of the cylinders have lower compression than the others, but still read nominally within spec?

--Geoff

When the headgasket blew on my Dodge Spirit with a 2.5, all of the coolant would get pushed into the recovery resevoir causing the engine to overheat. Right before having it fixed, I would have to empty the resevoir into the radiator once or twice a day. The spark plugs also showed evidence of anti-freeze getting into the cylinder.

-Kirk Matheson

sure you can verify this with a test, pull the coil connector and connect shop air to each cyl one at a time with the radiator cap off, crank the engine and you will see the coolant blow back thru the radiator, this will indicate a blown gasket/cracked head, normally cyl 3 and 4 are the faulty ones if the head is warped, but check all cyl's the coolant passages may be blown into the combustion sytem

consider also that this could be caused by a cracked cyl head..

Joe Pfeiffer wrote:

Really? Did you find the source of the leak?

I agree, the overheating and bubbling into the coolant reservoir is probably enough to condemn a headgasket in this case. I understand there are also kits you can get that will detect the presence of exhaust gasses in the coolant; these can be used to confirm a head gasket diagnosis when the problem is less obvious.

But a bubbler that passed a compression check, eh? Wow. I didn't know that could happen. Did one of the cylinders have lower compression than the others, but still read nominally within spec?

--Geoff

It was a cracked cylinder head (note your suggestion above!). Mitsubishi 2.6, with the famed intake-valve-too-close-to-exhaust-valve head crack.

I don't remember that much detail on it, sorry.