ive heard from different people that if your car is using a lot of antifreeze/coolant, you might have a ruined head gasket(s)....well, mine is using is like crazy....should i have the heads taken off and have 'em looked at, or should i look at all the hoses and there might be a hole somewhere or in the overflow tank.....any help would be appreciated. thanks

 

Are you overheating or just running hot or neither. Is your overflow tank full or low.

I had a 5.0 liter that kept overheating and it turned out to be a head gasket. It wasn't compltetly blown, just mashed enough to let the combustion in the cyclender boil the water near the water jacket.

 

If you're leaking you should be able to see it on the engine and/or under the car. Let it run for a little while and check for leaks. If it's not leaking but you're still using coolant then it's probably your head gasket, you can also check your plugs and oil as they will probably show signs of the leak.

 

see, thats the thing thats wierd about it. it stays right between the first and second mark after 130(whatever temp it is, cuz, i cant figure out the increments on the gauge). i fill it up, then, a week and a half, 2wks later, my low coolant light comes on. last time i changed my plugs, they were fine. it was doing this b4 i changed my plugs, so, i dont kno what to do. i dont see any signs of it on my engine, and id be able to see it where i park. but, i see nothing...im just tryin to figure out what i should do. cuz, its worrying me to DEATH !! thanks guys(or girls if any happen to respond)

 

run the engine to get it up to normal temp and then pull all the plugs and do a compression test on it. if you have a blown head gasket, the test will show it by locating a cylinder with much lower pressure than the others or maybe two cylinders if it is blown out between the two. before you do this, you could also run it without the radiator cap on it and look for a lot of bubbles in the coolant in the radiator.

 

thats good advice

 

thanks a lot everybody. i appreciate it. ill let u all know what i find out

 

Guessing that's a typo for running with it off, unless you've got x-ray vision to see the bubbles

 

I remember when I had a blown head gasket on my Bronco 5.0. Could only run the thing with the cap on loose because the combustion gases entered so much that it would over heat with pressure. Wierd as all hell. When it was runnig without the cap on the coolant would come up and bubble like it was purging air out of the system, except every five minutes the coolant would come back and down and up and down. Did a cylinder leakage test on it, right when I apllied air to the #3 cylinder, coolant came gushing up out the radiator. I say to a cylinder leage test to find out not only if the headgasket is internally blown and to see how healthy the engine is.

 

it says without chief.