Is this a blown headgasket or a cracked head?

[Kraelic]

I had both the oil cap and the radiator cap off and I felt no air coming from the radiator until I put the oil cap back on. The dipstick still has only oil on it, no mix. The oil cap has no white on it. I can see water dripping off the crossmember, but nothing looks wet around the bottom of the head. The compression is 165 160 160 160 on the cylinders.

[ShootToKill]

i honestly don't think you have either. i only say that because the information you give is kind of vauge. if you had a blown hg or a cracked head, your compression numbers would be like 160, 160, 100,160. or 160,160,0,160. if your with in i believe 15% of the other cylinders your fine. now what is it that makes you think you have a blown head gasket or a cracked head?

[Kraelic]

With the caps off the oil fill and the radiator I get the blowby gasses out of the oil fill, when I put the oil cap back on the air comes out of the radiator. It's almost like the headgasket may have blown out not at the cylinders but somewhere between an oil and coolant passage, or is this how its designed?

I have a new radiator, coolant overflow tank, and hoses on order to replace old worn stock parts. The old coolant tank was plastic and dryrotted with chunks missing. I've been putting in water and coolant and watching the needle, it used to take a few weeks before the needle would begin to climb indicating its pushed enough water out the overflow to need more put back in. The car now pushes enough water out in 15 to 20 min to have the needle begin jumping again.

[ShootToKill]

i would do a pressure check on your coolant system. autozone rents the sets for fairly cheap. is your car smoking at all? like smokes under decel or while accelerating?

[KGB]

Look its not a blown head or gasket from the head. If you problem is the coolant being all over the place, and the bypass gases making a horible atmosphere in your engine. Thats not where you should be looking or even thinking of troubleshooting. Take a look at the waterpump, or the raidator hoses. You might have a leak somewhere.

Flushing the coolant and filling. Make sure you drain and flush until its clear water, then drain oncemore and fill with a mix of at least 60/40. And make sire you still the colland resovoir to its full mark, leave radiator cap on to make sure that the air that may be in there gets a chance to come out, when its not burping anymore, close her up and look for leaks.

Oops im sorry, your trying to diag. and did this to diag. if your head were blown i would imagine that a compression test for the cylinder would have no problem if there were no problems on the block. If the headgasket is blown look for diferent color smoke, head gasket ma be bad

[1KleenS13]

Do a leakdown test.

[Kraelic]

Thankfully my car doesn't smoke, but I did indeed find a leak from the water pump.. so while the fan shround and such is removed for the replacement radiator I will get in there and replace the pump also.

It just freaked me out to have air coming out of the radiator like that... and strange thing, there is no air coming out of it today. Maybe the air was from the low water level and the water pump's weep tube or something.

[Romeo_rus]

flush the radiator if you will see pieces of oil in coolant - blown head gasket... but it is now cracked block - you would all coolant and you would notice it!