Driving with a blown head gasket

Hey guys, I need to get a car down to me that has the donor engine/trans and possible rear end. Seller says there's a blown head gasket.

You think it's safe to drive it about 100 miles or so if I throw some of that stop leak stuff in there? I know the damage the stuff can do in the long term but I"m planning on tearing into the engine ayway.

Worst thing is maybe a cracked head or am I just asking for all kinds of trouble?

Thanks all, NAES

 

all depends on which part of the gasket is blown. Chances are good it's the wrong part you'd want to put a hundred miles on.....

I wouldn't do it- warped heads, fried spun scorched bearings, smoked rods, cracked cylinders, and ruined cranks all come to mind.

And there's lots of time to think of those things while you're standing on the side of the frickin road a hundred miles from home...

If you plan to drive it, make sure the one that takes you there has a truck, and a chain. Just sayin

-rick

 

If it is a blown head gasket it should overheat on you, then bad ****. better haul it

 

;x2

 

I wouldn't risk it.

 

You might get by with it, but it's not worth the risk. Tow it or trailer it.

 

i dont think any one woud, would drive it. thats just a given. you want the car for the very parts your going to destroy. blown head gaskets ****.

i knew a guy that blew one in a old truck and was to lazy to fix it, he ended up putting a piston in the side of the block...

 

if blown between 2 cyls you can erode a bunch of metal and waste the motor

 

I tried it when I moved about 16 years ago and it didn't work out for me. And I was only going 4 miles a trip. You might be better off to take the tools and cherry picker and pull the drive train and other pieces you want and call the s****per to haul it. That might take all day but you would just have a pickup load of parts instead of a car sitting on the side of the road blowing steam. Have to have a ***le to do that though. It would be a lot easier to do it at home though and there always seems to be that one part that you let go with the rig that you wished you had kept. A Uhaul trailer is under a hundred bucks for one day if you pick it up and drop it off at the same spot most of the time. A tow dolly is a bit less but not a lot. That's a chunk but it might save a lot of headaches and a completely ruined engine in the process.

 

I did that on an Audi a few years ago. looked like some had taken a torch to the wall between #'s 4&5 combustion chambers. I didn't make it home with that one.

 

I agree with everything these guys have said.

That being said, I drove my '73 Duster from LA to Atlanta two years ago, with a wounded head gasket... it popped in the desert, so I drove most of the way with it.
It was at the front of the Number 1 cylinder, so the steam exited the front of the block.
There was no water in the oil, or I'd have replaced the head gasket in a parking lot. There was a little oil in the radiator... I said "screw it--it's a Slant 6, it'll get me home." and it did.

Stop Leak won't stop that leak, so don't try it.

For 100 miles, I wouldn't risk it--especially if you're buying it for the engine.

-Brad

 

Um. Why do you think an engine that the seller admits has a blown head gasket will be a good candidate for a rebuild?

All the above problems could very well have already happened to that POS when the current owner tried to limp it home.

Just sayin'

 

my 95 honda civic had a blown head gasket that was so bad it got a vacuum leak if you pulled the radiator cap. Never put any water in it and by time i got to work 4 miles away it would just be getting hot. Don't do it.

 

OK, nuff said. Thanks for the heads up everyone. (no pun intended...........seriiously!).

NAES