I need some mechanical help please

[terravista]

As above if it's into the combustion chamber it's probably doing damage and can get worse. You mentioned BF has used gunk. Was it a quality product or some cheap sh1+ ? As above give the cap a go it's going to cost you $10-20 . Then I would be using two tins of bars leak as per instructions.

There used be this stuff, it was like a block of charcoal the size of a small fire lighter and engine reconditioners used to slip a piece behind the welsh plugs before knocking them in during a rebuild. The stuff was awesome and I seen it seal up a major gasket leak on a four runner head gasket. It's never long term but can buy you a month or two to either arrange a fix or trade ;-)

The gunk that was put in was $45 for a small bottle and looked good on their website, but that obviously means little.
There were bottles of $12 stuff, but the theory was 4 time the price means 4 times the quality.
Fix will be the main option as she only bought the Mazda at Christmas after driving a Jeep for two years. Two years with a Jeep and the only problem was the door remote and a million litres of fuel. It's going to be hard to get her out of the Mazda for a while.
If she can get a few weeks out of it before the work is done, it will be a bonus, otherwise we have to trade vehicles and give her a chance to kill ours.
Cheers
Ian

[edz]

A mates work has a 4 cyl petrol hilux delivery ute, blew the head gasket  ... 4x bottles of Cargo Seal Up [ aprox $15 ea ] done to the directions and 5 years later its still getting flogged around by them ..
Our early V6 four runner daily driver  spat a headgasket [ common problem ]  about 6 months ago, took two bottles and runs as sweet as before and no water loss, dont think we'll try to get 5 years out of it, but its given a bit of breathing space till we work out the next move .

[Mallory Black]

terravista I don't know what gunk the boyfriend used but our own Mazda 626 is currently getting by with Rislone Head Gasket Fix in it's cooling system.
We used the entire bottle.
As with your car the engine was consuming coolant (exact same symptoms) and this stuff took care of the leak.

It's not a permanent repair but as long as the stuff is in the cooling system she holds together till I can look at it (one of these days).

[Footy Shorts Shane]

Any results?

[terravista]

Hi people, and thanks for help so far.
The car came back from the mechanic yesterday, and had a new radiator put in it.
The original radiator had two small cracks on the back of the top tank which supposedly allowed the coolant to drip down the back of the radiator under driving conditions, and was collected in a sort of built in drip tray on the bottom tank and/or evaporated before becoming visible on the ground.
We have been assured that there is no head gasket or head problems, but to my limited knowledge that still does not explain the exhaust gas in the coolant, or the water being pushed upward in the radiator under mild revving with the radiator cap off.
I will test it for water usage over the weekend, but I sincerely hope the mechanic is correct, as the radiator replacement was only one third the cost of a head job (and I don't mean the expensive hooker type)
Cheers
Ian

[dazzler]

or the water being pushed upward in the radiator under mild revving with the radiator cap off.

Thats normal as long as its not crazy like the colorado river. 

[JGM]

Hate to be a party pooper but maybe 2 things going on here.

Maybe the previous owner wasn't as vigilant with the water temp, and when the water got low after leaking from the cracks in the radiator, it got hot and cracked the head.

The rise in water level in the radiator is nothing to worry about, that's just the water pump circulating the water faster as it's speed increases with the engine revs.

If you do end up taking the head off, it's easy to see where the water leak was.  The cylinder with the water getting in it will be perfectly clean, no carbon build up at all.

JGM

[terravista]

The quote from the mechanic was " it can't be a cracked head or blown head gasket, it runs too bloody sweet"
Smooth start up when cold, smooth running when hot, smooth idle all the time, so I hope he is right, but I should be able to prove it one way or another by monday.
Cheers
Ian

[Mallory Black]

cool... sounds like you dodged a bullet there

[cruza driver]

That block block was standard in vn/vp commodore v6's it was a genuine Holden part.

And recommended by Holden after flushing the cooling system. Very effective we use to use them all the time.

[terravista]

If anyone stumbles across this thread with similar problems or previous respondents are following the thread, it looks like it was a stuffed radiator that was "sludged" up over half the core. This has caused a small leak between the top tank and core that leaked down next to the engine and was caught in a tray like area on the bottom tank. This evaporated or fell on the road while driving, but when stopped it did not drip on the ground so wasn't visible.
When the engine was warmed up and the car on a hoist you could feel cool areas on the radiator from under the car and only a couple of hot areas so the air flow or fan was not able to cool the water sufficiently and the pressure could not build up excessively.
We had the radiator replaced and pressure tested, and no problems since except the coolant always seems to drop about 50mm below the cap when cold, where all my other vehicles it sucked coolant back from the overflow on cooling and stayed full.
None of this explains the exhaust fumes in the coolant but hopefully it is a real fix and not just a delay to a head replacement.
Cheers
Ian

[Footy Shorts Shane]

None of this explains the exhaust fumes in the coolant but hopefully it is a real fix and not just a delay to a head replacement.
Cheers
Ian

A Tee Kay tester will find exhaust fumes in a 1960's VW radiator.     I'm sure they were developed by head gasket manufacturers.

Good to hear it is sorted.

Shane.