is my head gasket blown?

[kaedachef]

I just bought this 93 240sx se and I think the head gasket might be blown. Originally it needed a water pump and I installed it, and now it seems like it needs a t-stat. Also when I went to start my car yesterday I had the radiator cap off and coolant shot out of the radiator, and today I'm driving and my temp gauge is reading what looks like a little past the middle but no further, and I can hear my reservior boiling. is this the HG or what, and if it is how hard is it to install and possible if i could get directions on how to do it. Thank you.

[kaedachef]

any input would be nice

[devil_child]

air pockets. Jack up the front end high and run it while bleeding it. Should help. Also, don't forget to use that bleed screw. It's there for a reason =D. JP have fun

[kaedachef]

are u sure its just air pockets i thought when the coolant shoots out of the radiator its a HG

[r3v_v3ng3]

do a compression test.

[kaedachef]

I dont have the tester nor the money to buy one

[devil_child]

the coolant boiling is because with air in the system, that changes the boiling point which is why it shot out too. usually a headgasket leads to white smoke in the exhaust, bad compression, or a milky colored oil. 240's aren't easy to bleed. It will prolly maintain correct temp too until you get it out and accelerate hard, then it will prolly shoot up, then back down when you are coasting.

[kaedachef]

ok well i flushed my system kind of, my relief bolt broke when I was trying to get it off, and I couldn't get to the drain on the block. now after just flushing it through the radiator I put the plug back on and let it run with the cap off until I saw all of the air bubbles stop. Then I drove it for about 10 minutes and then i realized my hose wasn't fully tightened. Then after fixing that I took it around the block for about 5 minutes getting on it a little and then the top of the radiator cracked. Its really pissing me off now. I put some epoxy over the crack for a temp fix, but could this have happened because of air still in the system. (also my temp is just reading barely over what i'm pretty sure is half way.

[kaedachef]

bump

[kaedachef]

well I was able to drill through the pressure relief screw and I jacked the car up until the rear bumper almost touched the ground and let my car run with the radiator cap off and the hole open continuosly pouring in water, until i didn't really notice any bubbles, and the water was just spitting out without any bubbles. not sure if that fixed the problem yet. Any input guys.

[devil_child]

it will do that when the system heats up. shut it off wiggle the lines add more water. start it repeat.

[kaedachef]

dam i kinda put epoxy in the pressure relief hole. but my heat was barely there and now its hot.

[kaedachef]

well i noticed that I still have the same problem, and now i noticed that my radiator cap is leaking and there is a crack in my resivoir, could that be contributing to the air in the system or is that the problem right there?

[PorkChopExpress]

buy a new rad cap, buy a real temp gauge. a little past the middle isnt really an accurate reading.

[rxm6]

I thought I had a blown gasket too because after driving for an hour the car would start to overheat and I would be missing gigantic amounts of coolant. However, when I had a friend accelerate the engine to 5k and leave it there there was no white smoke. So I started the car and looked in the expansion tank and noticed small bubbles coming out every second. Finally, discovered my radiator cap was shot. FYI, Nissan head gaskets, in my experience, are hard to bust. My car is pushing 223k so I will have to rebuild it sooner or later...but over 200 is always an impressive feat for any engine

[justy90240sx]

in my opinion aside of what everyone is tellin you is, it doesnt sound like a head gasket. normally with a blown head gasket, one of a few things happen either you will have water in your oil which looks like milk in your oil. water or white smoke coming out your exhaust or a very noticeable miss. if you dont have any of those problems in my opinion its not your HG. i would personally try a new t stat and cap then bleed the system like you have been doin. and all this epoxy is bad you should try and replace the epoxyed parts as soon as possible. and would recommend a service manual that alot of times can eliminate havin to ask as many questions and guess work

[romerider153]

it sounds like you really have no idea what your doing bleeding the system is not that hard jack it up and wait for the upper house to get hot thats when you know the stat opened then keep squezzing it and the water level in the rad will drop just keep running it untill you cant add anymore coolent there your done

[Two-Fortee]

take off a coolant line, easiest one would be the one at the top of the rad. Check the colour, if its brownish, then yes.

All the things you just said sound like head gasket symptons, if your coolant has oil in it, its a given.