A Blown Head Gasket?

Tiny
BEEJAY1978
  • MEMBER
  • 2000 FORD TAURUS
  • 38,000 MILES
I just bought a used 1999 Ford Taurus. I had it about 5 weeks. I noticed during that time when I would put it in gear it would take a minute to catch. It only did that twice in a 5 week period. If I would press the gas it would just revve the rpms. Then it would catch & go. One day I pulled out of my driveway, got on the highway and noticed a "clinking" sound that elevated when I pushed the gas. Then the power dropped so I went to turn around & get it back home and it died completely. I had only had it on the road for about 5 minutes. I popped the hood (Its a 6 cylinder) the middle spark plug that you can see in the front, the rubber on it was smoking like hell. It never showed it was overheating or even getting hot. Oh like 2 seconds before the car died completely the engine light lite up & then started flashing. It is losing coolant/water. And pressure builds up in the resevoir quick. I have seen the water put in it all leak out when it was parked. It wont start now. It acts as if its not getting gas and its LOW on power. You can literally here it losing power when you try to crank it up. No doubt it gets hot but I'm not sure whats up. I was told by a non machanic I had a busted head gasket and I sure hope not but need to know reguardless. I looked in the water resevior for oil and it looked rusty but I couldn't really tell. It looked very similar to " Stop Leak" that folks but in their cars. So after all this do you have any ideas? Anything is appreciated.
Wednesday, July 4th, 2012 AT 6:09 AM

1 Reply

Tiny
MHPAUTOS
  • MECHANIC
  • 31,937 POSTS
I would do a compression test or get a mechanic to do a head check, this is a simple and quick chemical test to check for co in the cooling system, but if the system is building up so much pressure that is not a good sign, you can also do a simple test at home, fill the coolant to the top and run the engine with no cap on, with head problems, you will get sever bubbling or even water being ejected from the resiviour as compression pressure is pumped into the cooling system from the problem head gasket.
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Wednesday, July 4th, 2012 AT 9:28 AM

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