Head gasket 'stop leak'? Wut?

[phucheneh]

This is a new one for me. I'm always telling people not to put stop-leak crap into their cars...but I've never seen it for a damned head gasket.

http://www.headgasketsealers.com/index.html

I had a guy come to me with coolant in his oil. Said he had a product like this that he wanted to...install. Couldn't do it himself because the instructions involved removing the thermostat and flushing the cooling system multiple times.

Yeah, I know, that's simple, but, meh. People.

It's an I6, so...hint: fiscal irony...not many cheap cars using I6's...okay, I'll give another extremely sly and clever clue...it rhymes with 'shaguar.'

The product he has is not the one in the link. Or maybe it is, hell, I don't remember. But same claims, same principle ('pour epoxy in your cooling system'). Even if it was JUST a leak between coolant and oil passages...steel rings around the cylinders intact...how could this ever possible work?

But the bigger thing...via magical 'engine whispering'...I put my hand on his valve cover and simply felt it run...pretty sure it's got a bad cylinder. V-engines can be a little hard to 'read.' But I4's and I6's, I can usually pick up a mild but steady misfire; i.e. one cylinder is not being ENTIRELY useless, but it's way down on compression. Have verified myself correct on multiple occasions after compression testing and finding one cyl's readings at ~25-50% of the others. Yeah, I know, I'll a baller, just like Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Anyway, I'm gonna be nice and go ahead and compression test it when I get a chance, and then try and gently pound it into his head...you've got two big flat pieces of metal sandwiching a solid steel ring together with lots of force...that ring is no longer forming a full, continuous circle...nothing will fix this other than head gasket replacement. FFS, instead of pay $200 for magic beans, pay me the bargain price of about twice that, and I'll fix it properly.:\

Why are companies even allowed to sell dumb shit like this? Anyone ever see someone try it?

 

[Bartman39]

This is a new one for me. I'm always telling people not to put stop-leak crap into their cars...but I've never seen it for a damned head gasket.

Dood...? Liquid glass has been around for years...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_silicate
Same crap different day still worthless...

 

[phucheneh]

Holy shit, are you kidding me? It's sodium silicate?

Haha, yeah, that's a great thing to run through your engine when water is mixing with the oil...I believe putting that stuff in the crankcase was how they (intentionally) ruined the 'cash for clunkers' cars.

 

[Meghan54]

You understand not all leaking head gaskets let water and oil mix, at least at first, right? That stuff can work, at least long enough to "hide" the problem until the car's sold.

And I thought you worked on cars, like got paid to do it.....like a job....and you never heard of a product that's been around for decades?

 

[phucheneh]

Do you honestly think I 'fix' cars with stop-leak?

And yes, I'm aware of the various ways a head gasket can blow. In this case, it is that coolant is either going into the cylinder, or into an oil passage (extremely likely to be the latter since no smoke seems to be accompanying the increasing volume of liquid in the crankcase)...but the cylinder is leaking as well. With the exception of steel shim gaskets being corroded by acidic coolant, a blown headgasket is almost always the result of a blown sealing ring around the cylinder itself, which then generally either connects to another cylinder and/or coolant and oil passages.

My bad, Mr. Highspeed, I'm sorry I'm not educated in products intended for gullible morons. I was amused by it.

 

[nerp]

Stop leak is for when you're driving a 83 Rabbit cross country and you are loosing coolant halfway through death valley. Why people get this crap to avoid inevitable repairs is beyond me. It's like fix a flat for lazy people who don't feel like driving to the nearest air pump or calling AAA.