Freakin' head gasket blew on my daughter's car

-
Mopar to ya

Mopar to ya

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 17, 2011
Messages
3,047
Reaction score
206
Location
Rock Creek, Minnesota
I just bought my daughter a 2001 Mazda 626 a little less than a month ago. It had started giving her trouble starting recently. Then the heat would come and go, though the coolant was full. A few days ago the CEL came on and it had a random misfire code, though it was not misfiring at the time. Today on the way to work it started to overheat and she had no heat. I told her to watch the gauge and pull over if it got too hot and that I would come and trade cars with her. She never made it to work. It died at a stop light. I had it towed to my work and checked it out after hours. I got it started, but the coolant had the smell of death and exhaust was literally pouring out the radiator neck. I got it filled but it wouldn't bleed air as it was pumping exhaust into the coolant so fast it looked like a rapid boil in the radiator. Less than a thousand miles since I bought it, and now I have to do a freakin' head job. Pisses me off.
 
I don't like foreign cars...

And that's all that I'm gonna say about that...
 
Hate to say it but the seller probably knew it was going so they unloaded it.....
If thats not the case you are having some bad luck for sure.
 
The seller is a good friend of mine. Just replaced the tranny before I bought it. He didn't know. He will probably help pay for it, I am sure.
 
yikes! an AutoAlliance Int. car. sorry about that. those were bad years, just bears the mazda name plate.
 
That's too bad, sometimes if you didn't have bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all.
 
Usually not a very hard a job if a 4 cylinder. Before you take it apart, run it w/ the PCV disconnected and try to judge the blow-by. If noticeable, consider a re-ring & hone job too. You can do that with the block in the car, plus probably change the main bearings. Have the head checked for flatness. Aluminum heads often warp when over-heated.
 
BillGrissom said:
Usually not a very hard a job if a 4 cylinder. Before you take it apart, run it w/ the PCV disconnected and try to judge the blow-by. If noticeable, consider a re-ring & hone job too. You can do that with the block in the car, plus probably change the main bearings. Have the head checked for flatness. Aluminum heads often warp when over-heated.
Click to expand...

Not a chance this car is getting that much tear down. The head goes to a guy I know who owns Cylinder Head Express. He will deck it and pressure check it. I expect it to be cracked or warped. If not he will resurface it and off I go. If it is bad, he will give me a good price on a reman. It is a four cylinder with just over 100K on it. Not the first head job I've done, and it won't be the last. And to all you who want to make a joke about that line, it's CYLINDER head job. :)
 
These newer cars don't last, its 11 years old-over 100,000 miles. Good thing they have OD trans or they would wear out even earlier.

Now that said, I got my brother a 98 Buick Century with a V6 over 3 years ago, hes got 160,000 on it and put 45,000 miles on himself.

So maybe its luck and depends on the car-models. I went with Buick cause they are driven easier and this engine had the intake gasket replaced when I got it at 125,000 miles. Besides water pump and plugs-wires and that intake gasket no work was done to the drivetrain..trans will slip till it warms up if pushed hard--seals ?

Now I think it drives like crap, steering, power and its all worn out but gets him around
 
The thing is......what caused it????....t'stat stuck shut?, radiator half clogged?, lack of coolant changes ( corrosion )???????
 
cjh said:
The thing is......what caused it????....t'stat stuck shut?, radiator half clogged?, lack of coolant changes ( corrosion )???????
Click to expand...

X2, the timeline, and the millage, sounds WAY to fast to just be a headgasket going. I'd probably take some time to go over the entire cooling system and figure out what induced it. I normally do a T-Stat, and a flush a long with a full service when I first get a used vehicle to see the shape of everything and get a feel for whats been done and what hasn't, but since your way past that....I would recomend some serious time put into figuring out what part of the cooling system nuked that headgasket, and i'd probably start at the water pump...
 
I would pull the exhaust manifold off the head, undo the head bolts, lean the head back toward the firewall and pull the gasket.
If it looked obvious that it's a rotted spot in the head gasket, clean off the old one and slap a new one on it and go.
The timeframe in years is about right for a gasket failure.

I have done Honda's like this also.
Never even unhooked one vac line or anything related to the intake at all, just lean the head over to the side.
There is usually some sort of support that goes from the block to the intake that will have to come off (If the mazda has one)
A head gasket and one hour is about all it takes to do it this way.
(Of course you will have to make the decision on how the head gasket failed)

Blown out vs Rotted steel is the dead givaway.
 
This happened to my son's 4cyl aluminum GM beater, head wore a groove between two combustion chambers. Thought it was toast, replaced the head and it ran good for a long time.
 
dodge freak said:
These newer cars don't last, its 11 years old-over 100,000 miles. Good thing they have OD trans or they would wear out even earlier.
Click to expand...

I beg to differ. This is the business I am in. These cars last 250-300,000 miles easily if maintained properly. I can't say what the past owners did, but I will do the head and expect another 100K easily. Personally I drive a Lesabre due to the comfort and the best modern 6 cylinder made, but for a cheap car for my daughter, this 626 is a good car.

I don't want to do a gasket slap. This is almost guaranteed to have a warped head, and probably cracked. She drove it 20 miles overheating. It is not a hard one to do. Book time is 6.9 hours. I'll have the opportunity to get the car in top shape, check the timing belt, and get it into condition that I don't have to worry about it for a long, long time. It sucks to have to do it, but it will be better in the long run.
 
My moms 83 626 blew a head gasket too at about 117k. I replaced that (I was driving it at the time so it was on my watch dad said) when I was 17 in the garage. Head wasnt warped (just started chugging and blowing steam out the tailpipe) as it held fast until we sold it 5 years later. That was a pretty good car. We had an 80 before that. Nothing wrong with those cars. I remember cheating and taking the cam cog off the cam so I wouldnt have to take the timing belt lower end apart. worked!
 
pishta said:
My moms 83 626 blew a head gasket too at about 117k. I replaced that (I was driving it at the time so it was on my watch dad said) when I was 17 in the garage. Head wasnt warped (just started chugging and blowing steam out the tailpipe) as it held fast until we sold it 5 years later. That was a pretty good car. We had an 80 before that. Nothing wrong with those cars. I remember cheating and taking the cam cog off the cam so I wouldnt have to take the timing belt lower end apart. worked!
Click to expand...

I have done a lot of that. Zip tie the timing belt to the cam and crank pulley so it can't move, slide the cam gear with belt off, take off just enough to slide the head gasket out and new one in, then slightly over torque the stretch head bolts, slip the cam gear with belt back on. It works as long as the head is true. You can be in and out in less than an hour on most cars. You just can't trust the repair.
 
Mopar to ya said:
I beg to differ. This is the business I am in. These cars last 250-300,000 miles easily if maintained properly. I can't say what the past owners did, but I will do the head and expect another 100K easily. Personally I drive a Lesabre due to the comfort and the best modern 6 cylinder made, but for a cheap car for my daughter, this 626 is a good car.

I don't want to do a gasket slap. This is almost guaranteed to have a warped head, and probably cracked. She drove it 20 miles overheating. It is not a hard one to do. Book time is 6.9 hours. I'll have the opportunity to get the car in top shape, check the timing belt, and get it into condition that I don't have to worry about it for a long, long time. It sucks to have to do it, but it will be better in the long run.
Click to expand...

Well if your willing to change major parts like heads, yes they keep on going but back in the 1980's when many V6 and some 4 bangers had iron heads, they would just need a new timing chain-if that to break 200,000

But then came plastic intake manifolds, aluminum heads--anti freeze that was to last 150,000 without changing, LOL
 
dodge freak said:
Well if your willing to change major parts like heads, yes they keep on going but back in the 1980's when many V6 and some 4 bangers had iron heads, they would just need a new timing chain-if that to break 200,000

But then came plastic intake manifolds, aluminum heads--anti freeze that was to last 150,000 without changing, LOL
Click to expand...

I hate to bring up our favorite Mopars, but I have done more 2.2 and 2.6 heads than every other kinds combined. Newly made doesn't mean crap any more than older means quality. I do this for a living. I have for the better parts os 32 years. I have a pretty good idea about what cars are good and what cars aren't. I don't base my criteria on when they were made, I base it on how they hold up. Todays machine tolerances are so much better that it embarrasses the older cars. When I was a kid, 100K was throw away time. Now, 100K is broken in.
 
The head is not cracked but is what he called warp 9. On a scale of one to ten, one being lightly warped and ten being like whitecaps on a lake, it was a nine. $400 for a reman head. Can't even build mine. Oh well, what do you do. I pick it up tomorrow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top