Cracked head gasket/warped head??? plz help
Posted: May 9th, 2006, 9:11 pm
My mx-3 is probably on its last leg. My "family" 99 mercury mystique inner tie rod threads rusted out and i dont have the $$$/tools to fix it right now. Luckily, I have been riding to work with my mom(work at the same company) while my pregnant wife takes the mx to goto work pick up the kids at school. Now I fear that my mx-3 is going to crap out on my wife while she is driving it.
History: Have a 93 gs with a ZE that was swapped back in oct '02. Since then i have only put 20k miles on it. From day one I have had overheating/coolant problems(must have got a cursed engine). I have pretty much replaced every coolant hose under the hood (just do a search for this name and ghandi1981 in this forum and you will see all the problams i have had!!!). Everytime it overheated i didnt drive the car more than haf a mile and pulled over. A few times i have been dumb enough to add water to the engine while it was HOT. Didnt know at the time that i shouldnt have done that. About 2-3 months ago I had a hose go out. It was the water bypass hose. Took out the IM and did the VCGs while I was at it. I noticed that under the water bypass hose/pipe was standing water/oil. Around the time before that hose went out my car started to leak oil(from under the oil filter, and another spot off the tranny). I came to the conclusion that the water/oil mixture was overflowing from under the hose/in between the heads and pouring out down the tranny. Since replacing the hose, I have had to keep adding water to the car because i suspect it is leaking out. We were running late to my son's practice and I didnt check the water level before we left.
Coming home from son's t-ball practice the car started temp started to rise. I have a "bad" habit of always checking the temp gauge b/c of the previous history with my car. I was 2 blocks from my house and got home before it went over the 'H' line. I turned on the heater but no heat came out. BAD SIGN. Got home and turned off the car. Popped the hood and heard/saw air bubbles coming from the water in between the heads(Air bubbles could have been the water/oil boiling maybe??). Stuck my magnetic screw retriever down there by the fpr inside the liquid and it did come out a water/oil mixture but it wasnt hot so i dont think it was boiling(unless it cooled of by the time i touched it) Also on the magnet was little metallic fillings.
My car runs good(so i think) and i get good gas mileage. The questions I have are:
1) Why is there standing water/oil under the bypass pipe/hose and in between the heads?
2) If it is a cracked head, will i need a new engine?
3) Is is safe for my wife to drive if i keep the coolant levels in check for the time being til i can fix my other car?
4) What are those metal fillings from?
Any help would be greatly appriciated.
Thanks!!
AJ
History: Have a 93 gs with a ZE that was swapped back in oct '02. Since then i have only put 20k miles on it. From day one I have had overheating/coolant problems(must have got a cursed engine). I have pretty much replaced every coolant hose under the hood (just do a search for this name and ghandi1981 in this forum and you will see all the problams i have had!!!). Everytime it overheated i didnt drive the car more than haf a mile and pulled over. A few times i have been dumb enough to add water to the engine while it was HOT. Didnt know at the time that i shouldnt have done that. About 2-3 months ago I had a hose go out. It was the water bypass hose. Took out the IM and did the VCGs while I was at it. I noticed that under the water bypass hose/pipe was standing water/oil. Around the time before that hose went out my car started to leak oil(from under the oil filter, and another spot off the tranny). I came to the conclusion that the water/oil mixture was overflowing from under the hose/in between the heads and pouring out down the tranny. Since replacing the hose, I have had to keep adding water to the car because i suspect it is leaking out. We were running late to my son's practice and I didnt check the water level before we left.
Coming home from son's t-ball practice the car started temp started to rise. I have a "bad" habit of always checking the temp gauge b/c of the previous history with my car. I was 2 blocks from my house and got home before it went over the 'H' line. I turned on the heater but no heat came out. BAD SIGN. Got home and turned off the car. Popped the hood and heard/saw air bubbles coming from the water in between the heads(Air bubbles could have been the water/oil boiling maybe??). Stuck my magnetic screw retriever down there by the fpr inside the liquid and it did come out a water/oil mixture but it wasnt hot so i dont think it was boiling(unless it cooled of by the time i touched it) Also on the magnet was little metallic fillings.
My car runs good(so i think) and i get good gas mileage. The questions I have are:
1) Why is there standing water/oil under the bypass pipe/hose and in between the heads?
2) If it is a cracked head, will i need a new engine?
3) Is is safe for my wife to drive if i keep the coolant levels in check for the time being til i can fix my other car?
4) What are those metal fillings from?
Any help would be greatly appriciated.
Thanks!!
AJ