Signs for gone headgasket?

[Sebastian]

what are the obvious signs ?
how do i know for sure the headgasket is gone ?


just had a raw with a so called ''mechanic''

[finers]

I know in the punto it was rapid coolant lose and bubbling, depends on where it went?, have heard if it goes between a cylinder its harder to tell nd needs a compression test or the head to be taken off and checked,

In my case the oil got diluted with the coolant, car was very smokey ran s**t and over heated, i needed to get home so ran the heat at full blast to help the engine cool nd creeped along.

[CJ]

Emulsified oil ('mayonaise') on the underside of the oil filler cap is a dead giveaway.

Coolant loss without sign of leaks.

Darkening in colour of coolant.

Low engine compression.

CJ

[finers]

how do i know for sure the headgasket is gone ?

Take off the head, / compression test, was askin de aul lad der, says even compression test can b a wrong diagnostic as a fault with a valve cud cause that.

just think inspection of the gasket is the only sure way of knowing if the previous obvious signs are not showing but they most likely will, of all friends / family cars where the head has gone in ech case the car was overheating and oil being diluted.

[steelroe]

http://wiki.seloc.org/a/Head_gasket_failure

What problems ar you having? Why the blow out with the mechanic?
You can also buy a chemical kit that will test the coolant for combustion gasses.

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/overheat ... l#speedtop

[colm_mcm]

I'm presuming someone was trying to reduce the price of your FTO!

[Masa]

I'll add to Cj's list the fact that you'll see big white cloud comign from your exhaust when starting/stopped in traffic ...

Just changed mine last month

it will also have a tendency to overheat as it "drinks" the coolant extremely quickly

so if you have to fill the coolant quite often it may be a sign

[colm_mcm]

you could blow a head gasket and the only symptom would be a misfire, depends on what part of the gasket has broken down.

[steelroe]

Need to know the symptoms before you can diagnose!.

An number of things can cause overheating/coolant loss.