delete this damn thread before people lose their minds

Stuff like that crap is designed to get you to the gantry on which hangs the chainfall you will be yanking the motor with. Cheaper than a tow truck. Plan on a clogged coolant system too. Including egr...

 

I owned and operated a chain of auto parts stores for 16 years and have seen many products such as this come and go. Anything that stops a head gasket from leaking is going to eventually stop up your coolant passages, heater core etc.
You are just trading a short term solution for a larger long term issue. The only prudent way to repair a leaking head gasket is to replace it.

 

Beleive this.

 

No, the worst that can, and will happen is that you grenade your engine because you thought you could fix it with some shit in a can.

 

I am NOT a fan of "Snake Oils" But I used Blue Devil on my 2005 Sequoia with 300,000 + miles on it and it stopped a head gasket leak. I would use it again if I needed to.

 

No, it clogged the leak. It didn't fix anything.

 

I said I was NOT a fan of snake oils but with 300,000 miles on a 2005 in 2017 I felt I had nothing to lose. I say fixed you say clogged it really does not matter.

 

Well really all a gasket does is clog a leak. A really big one...

If this particular stuff works, you flush it out anyway, nothing to clog the radiator should be left. I tried it in a 2.7 and it didn't work.

 

Sure, if you've got a bad transmission, moldy seats from a bad door seal, a cracked radiator, and a long line of other issues, you've got nothing to loose. Might as well throw some snake oil in it because it's headed to the dumpster anyway.

Generally speaking though, 300k miles isn't a lot for a Toyota. If that was its only problem, I would have actually fixed it.

 

Nobody mentioned it here, so I'll be the first. Car manufacturers use coolant formula instead of plain water for main three reasons:

1. The boiling point and freezing point is a bit better than plain water. If you use some unknown (proprietary formula) you have no clue if it meets engine requirement. When coolant boils it is not just that turns your engine into a kettle - that's way to late. If you observe a kettle before the water reach the boiling point you will hear the sound of water boiling at the heater element. This is what will happen with engine or head walls in cooling passages. If coolant starts "bubbling" there the cooling efficiency is dropping and while your temp gauge still shows normal operating temperature, cylinder walls are much hotter than designed for.

2. Prevents corrosion of engine gusts other components (radiator, water pump, etc.). Factory formula is set to protect different materials used for that (steel, iron, aluminium, brass and copper) from corrosion. These guys must be good if their "proprietary formula" works for all metal combinations (is good for all engines, years and manufacturers).

3. Lubricate water pump seals and other moving elements. Factory formula does the job for specific materials used in the engine. So is the "proprietary formula" so universal that works for all cars?

I am not saying the "proprietary formula" will not stop any leaks - for some it might work for short or longer time but it is like running the engine on canola oils instead of Mobil 1. I guarantee you the engine will run for some time on it, but the life time of the engine will be close to Ford rather than Toyota. If you are in a high desert 100 miles away from civilization with engine that just lost all oil, you will put a gallon of canola oil into the engine just to save your life, but if your car is your DD, fixing it with magic "proprietary formula" is just plain mindless imho.

 

I dont see how youd grenade an engine

Maybe it fucks up a seal.. or all of them but ok

 

What if it seals the head gasket leak 90% so you continue driving for 10k+ miles while a tiny bit of coolant and exhaust gases are leaking past the gasket eventually wearing the block surface down? Now when you take the cylinder head off not only do you have to put a new gasket on but you have to resurface the block to get it to seal. That short term cheap fix ends up costing a lot more.

 

I've seen that on a Honda Civic 1.7L block before, the block pitted and worn away where it was happening. Pretty wild, and I hadn't heard of or seen anything like that before, and I'm definitely not a pro mechanic, so to say I was perplexed, until I got onto the internets and found some stuff, would be an understatement, lol

 

Sometimes that happens even w/o snake oils.
It's a 'who cares' option. Sometimes it works fine.

 

The "Liquid Glass" methods were def. last ditch. I've taken apart a 'Blue Deviled' engine, all I found was a powder like substance after it dried. I think it stayed suspended while wet.

No bodies saying do this to a nice vehicle and lots of people are at the mercy of a mechanic. I finally have had to establish with one and we discussed this once. He rec's it to people who balk at 1500 dollar proper fixes and frankly, don't have it. K and W make the better version for cracks. I see lots of vehicles with water here. I don't run straight water. I can't fix the whole world.

 

You can buy a reman block for less than 2k and a used engine from a junk yard for less than $600... Personally I’d do a engine swap over a head job any day. Especially when all I’d be doing is throwing new leak stoppers (gaskets) in a 200,000+ motor. If I had a motor with less miles sure a gasket job would be more appealing to me but not when good 1st gen motors are sitting everywhere on broken frames lol

 

Like really?

What happens when a head gasket fails? It overheats because it isn’t cooling correctly, and you get water/coolant mixing with your oil. Coolant makes a really shitty engine lubricant.

Now let’s assume you think you fixed it becuase you threw some shit in a bottle in there. Now let’s say it doesnt fix it, and it continues to overheat, and maybe even makes the problem worse because it clogs the cooling system.

Perhaps “grenade” was technically a little over the top, but I think you should understand the main point. It’s not good for the motor.

 

In my particular case I’m not getting coolant in the oil only in the exhaust. The WHOLE coolant system gets plugged up... not likely...but if it does... eBay sells radiators everyday for $60 lol.

 

What about the cooling jackets and water channels in the engine? The cooling system encompasses a little more than a radiator...