Symptoms of a blown head gasket

I'm not asking for help but rather it's a tip for those with cooling issues. Maybe someone will do a google search and save themselves a headache.

Anyway, on my 1999 VFR I had a peculiar issue in which I could not fill the coolant all the way up to the radiator filler neck. Not only that if I added more coolant it would go straight to the overflow tank on the other side.

So if this happens to you, I bet you have a blown head gasket. Another way to confirm this is to let the bike idle and watch the overflow tank. Does the coolant level start rising and/or boiling within 5 minutes? If so, yes, bad news you have a blown head gasket.

Hope this helps anyone, signing out now...

 

Usually head gaskets blow when the engine is overheated (fan not working, insufficient coolant, bad radiator cap, etc.), but a bad gasket will also cause overheating. :crushed:

 

:bowl:Head gaskets also blow when BB rides it and Randy likes to turn the VFR into a uhaul truck.

 

The symptoms you stated above can happen with a bad radiator cap, as it can't hold sufficient pressure and so it allows the coolant to boil faster. What also can happen is that your reservoir will overfill and leak coolant out of the drain hose. This will then spill onto your back tire and could easily cause a crash if you are running a glycol coolant. I know all of this from experience.

 

That's true but in my peculiar blown head gasket experience the coolant would not fill all the way up to the cap. A poor man's way to tell if it's a bad cap is to fill up the radiator with water, put the cap on and put the bike on the center stand. Now the test is to unscrew the coolant drain hole at the water pump. If the cap is good you should barely get any water draining out since the cap in theory should be holding all the water in. But if you're getting water leaking out even with the cap installed then that's a sign of a bad cap.

 

See what happens when you ride around redline most the time! Sorry to hear about your bike. You gonna fix it? If so remember to check the head for flatness, you may have to have it milled a tad to make it flat. If you're doing one might as well do both and mill the other head the same amount if it needed cutting. So compression is the same in both and MORE POWER for ya. I know you'd love that.

Other than that how ya doing? Been a while.

 

Well I already fixed it and well I know it isn't the proper way but I did it by using those gasket sealants you pour in the radiator. It was either that or spend long weekends and hundreds of bucks. It's been too long since I've been on two wheels and the bike's already had nearly 50k hard-ridden miles so I figure if the sealant holds for about 4 more years I'll happy since I figure by then I'll be able to afford a 1098.

Yeah I haven't been as active on this site as I used to but I still check it every now and then. Just been busy with life and all and trying to find something better for my career. I'm surprised you remember me it's been a long time, hope you're doing well!

 

You know of course it would be next to impossible for that gunk you pour into the radiator to last very long, that should only be used in a emergency. The bike will die for sure if you keep riding it and the engine will be totally destroyed unlike it was

 

If the head gasket is just leaking water and not in to the compression part also, you should be fine with the sealant. Hard to forget you and Gary. Had a great time that day riding the mountains and parkway.

 

Has some one or agency had you tied up Joey?

Just a thought. I saw one a couple occassions years ago that someone flushed their rads on their cars and after what they thought was fillling the system again, they had left vapour locks in the system. That causes coolant to boil at a far lower temp, thus would flow into their overflow or out the top of the cap with a boil over. Could that have been an issue?

I have never used that pour in sealer. Never have had the need for it. But I always wnodered if there was other less than welcomed effects from using that stuff.

 

I don't think it was a vapour lock because again, the coolant wasn't filling up all the way up to the radiator neck. Even if I pour in 3 gallons of water it would only get up to about 4 inches from the top and then the rest would just redirect to the overflow tank.

As for the sealant, it did ruin some radiator hoses and if I had a chance to start over I would've used less of the sealant. But oh well, I'd rather replace some radiator hoses than take apart the engine and mill it.

 

band aid fixs are asking for trouble, Russian gaming is a poor bet.