How to Recognize When a Head Gasket Needs Replacing

A faulty head gasket can cause catastrophic damage to your car's engine. The most common way to recognize when a head gasket needs replacing is when your car overheats frequently, or burns a lot of oil. Failure to recognize and address these problems may result in destruction to your vehicle's cooling system, pistons, valves and even the entire engine block.

Instructions

1

Recognize when a gasket needs replacing by watching the smoke that comes out of your tailpipe. If billowing white clouds of smoke are coming out the back of your vehicle, then engine coolant may be finding its way through the gap in the gasket and into the combustion chamber.

2

Check the inside of the engine compartment and cooling system. Look for a syrupy beige fluid that results when coolant and crankcase oil get mixed up. You can even remove the oil dipstick or remove the radiator cap and try to recognize the fluid that way. Eventually, this fluid will coat the inside of your engine compartment if you do not get the head gasket replaced.

3

Look for minor problems that may indicate that it's time to replace the head gasket. For instance, if you're having to refill your radiator frequently, it might be due to a crack or excessive wear of the head gasket. Frequent overheating may be a sign of either a leaking head gasket or a leaking radiator as well.

4

Take your car to a reliable mechanic if you recognize some of the warning signs of a cracked or worn head gasket. In some cases, the warning signs may be so subtle that only a diagnostic tester can determine whether the head gasket needs replacing or not. Unless catastrophic damage to the engine block occurs, a number of other cooling system failures may be causing the problem.

5

Roll up your sleeves and take your engine block apart to recognize if your head gasket needs replacing. Installing a new head gasket is labor-intensive and involves dismantling most of your engine and should only be performed by skilled mechanics. On the other hand, this may be the only way to tell for sure if your head gasket is the root of your cooling system and engine woes.