My wife’s car has been using coolant and we do know where its going to. No drops in the driveway so I figured she had a head gasket going. Well she has been filling the coolant with water when the light comes on but she must have forgot to last week and the car started to run hot when she stopped she noticed that the coolant cap had cracked and was bubbling over and out. The car does have white smoke but no sign of water in the oil… Car has no fluids running out the exhaust pipe either. After the problem with over heating the check engine light came on so I scanned it and I got codes P0300 and P0302. So I pulled all the wires and plugs and cylinder #2 had lots of oil in it and there was a little bit of oil on top of the engine under the plastic cover. Of course cylinder #2′s plug was fouled and oiled up. I need to know what the problem is so I can get to fixing it ASAP. Do you think its a blown head gasket? Cracked head? seals? Im temporarily laid off from work right so I have time and would like to save the money in labor. I have two friends that are mechanic’s who are willing to help here and there but I will be doing most of the work… If you think it is the head or head gasket how I go about removing the head? Does the engine need to be dropped to get the manifold off? Again my wife’s car is a 1998 Volvo V70 XC70 Cross Country AWD wagon 5 cylinder 2.4 liter Turbo. Thanks in advance!!!
My wife said the car was running over half mark on temp gauge but never reached the red line…
plain and simple…..your head gaskets gone and mayb e cracked the head, so you need to do a pressure test but either way you need a motor.
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L
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sounds like you’ve got compression in the cooling system – so likely either a head gasket or cracked head. A P0302 is a misfire on #2 cylinder and a P0300 is a random misfire. A head gasket or head could cause this issue.
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the heads bolt onto the engine block, in between the 2 there is the head gasket. there are a lot of small channels for coolant / oil / exhaust and all… when you run a car hot enough thats one thing that happens from the metal warping. the block could be ruined, either or both of the heads could be ruined, but regardless that head gasket is shot.
white smoke out the exhaust pipe means a coolant channel is mixing w/ an exhaust channel. your coolant is burning and coming out the pipes.
for the oil in #2 cylinder and ‘on top’ sounds like an oil channel may’ve connected to an intake channel, the oil can come back up into your air intake, your air filter might be soaked in it or it may not have gotten quite that far.
how you find out for sure….. is a compression test. you don’t have to buy the gauge, you can rent it from autozone or your auto parts store. a compression gauge screws into your spark plug holes and tells you the compression in the cylinder.
if you have a distributor cap unplug the middle wire, if you got ignition modules unplug them. undo 1 plug at a time and screw the gauge in, crank it to see where the pressure caps out at. nothing should be below 100psi. usual healthy engines can be like 115-130 depending on what you have, and a book on your car will tell you what it should actually be. and as well, the different cylinders should all have relatively the same compression (like w/in 15-20psi)…
once the heads are removed is when you find out how the block looks, you take a feeler gauge to it to ensure its alright. and you take the head(s) + intake to a machine shop, they will ensure it is completely flat on the mating surface and that it is not warped.
to remove the head you have to remove the intake, exhaust manifold, valve covers and any pulleys / etc that are in the way. it will finally expose the head bolts to undo, it is a lot of work and will not be something quick to do. if you don’t have a book on the engine (haynes/chiltons) you must have one and it can help w/ the removal. for putting things back together as well all those bolts have specific torque specs that the book will have so you don’t have a problem when its back together.
you should not need to drop the engine.there will be a lot of bolts and nuts in horrible places where you have to fanagle wrenches and sockets, cut your hands to shit and get oil stains on your hands.
long as everything else is ok even w/ just a bad head gasket this will still be a major pain.
Life lesson: If your car is hot, pull over. Don’t try to make it, pull over!!! wait for it to cool down and refill your coolant (From the radiator!!! not just the reservoir!) if it comes right back out you HAVE to find out where its comin out and fix that.
if you run your car hot you cause severe damage.
oh ya, if you get it fixed ….youll still need to fix the original issue that caused you to overheat (coolant leak or whatever). and as well, you may expect some other new issues may have arisen from the mess.
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plain and simple…..your head gaskets gone and mayb e cracked the head, so you need to do a pressure test but either way you need a motor.
)
L
References :
my boyfriends a mechanic i asked him