Combustion gases in coolant

RIDNDRTY

MEMBER
2006 BUICK TERRAZA
3.5L
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
180,000 MILES

We took my wife's daily driver into our mechanic because of a coolant overheating issue that just surfaced. They confirmed that we either have a bad head gasket or a cracked/warped head.
Prior to taking it in for inspection I replaced the vehicle's thermostat, water pump, and both radiator hoses attempting to remedy the situation.
I have ordered a set of new head gaskets (along with many other gaskets: exhaust, intake, etc.) Along with new head bolts.
I have also ordered two can of Bar's Leak Head Gasket Repair.
The van has 183,000 miles on it. We would like to repair it and get a few more years of service before replacing it.

My questions are:

Should I attempt to fix the issue first by using the Bars Leak-branded fix in a bottle,
and if so, should I bypass the heater core(s) and remove the thermostat while the bottle of goo does its thing?
Removing the thermostat and bypassing the heater core are not recommended by Bars though their wording states that bypassing a "clean" heater core is not necessary. Obviously our heater core is not in new condition so by definition I cannot claim that it is "clean."
Any advice most appreciated!
Thank you.

1 Reply

SCGRANTURISMO

MECHANIC
4,897 POSTS

Hello,

I would follow the directions on the bottle. I would recommend using a different product if you are going to go that way though. Blue Devil is about the only head gasket repair product like Bars that I would recommend using. It has a pretty good success rate and I have personally seen it work on more than one vehicle. Again, follow the directions to a "T". Having said that, it always better to have the vehicle fixed properly by replacing the failed head gaskets, but Blue Devil might work for a good while as well. Please get back to us with how everything turns out. I hope that this helps.

Thanks,
Alex
2CarPros