You will loose coolant with no visible leaks, you will get oil in your coolant and coolant in your oil. You may get a buildup of milky crud around your oil cap and the same on your radiator cap. Get a leakdown (I think that's what they call it , measures the types of gas in your coolant) test done.
You can also get a noticeable shit load of steam out your tail pipe when the car is running, and experience difficult starting (aka the battery can't effectively crank the motor if there is water in the cylinder. It all depends too, on where a suspected gasket failure is, as to what the symptoms are. The head gasket effectively keeps the oil, water and (air/fuel) systems separated, so you can get a range of symptoms and differing symptoms from others depending on where on the gasket the failure has occurred.
hmm ok ... someone told me i had to replace the head gasket on my Z, but i think he was bullshiting me ... however, could it affect the boost as well? and also, roughly, how much would that be to bring the car to a mechanic to replace it?
Basically it's an engine rebuild to replace the hg, if you dont have any of the symptoms mentioned above I dont think you have anything to worry about.
I wouldn't call it a rebuild but it is easiest to remove the engine to change them. I have personally seen heads removed on TT's while the engine remains in the car. Who actually told you that the head gaskets needed to be replaced?
I don't think a head gasket would necessarily affect the boost, but high boost can contribute to blowing a head gasket.
hmm when do 300zx usually need head gasket replaced? mine sometimes blows a tiny tiny bit of smoke but then goes away, and theres a very small amount of that brown mikly stuff in m radiator just on the cap. i hope it aint head gasket, how much is it to usually fix if so?
I just spent about 5-6k getting my HG done, however it included a bunch of other things, no just a a single gasket. Engine is as good as new now.
does it sound like my engine has the symptoms of a rebuild? as posted above i mean it runs smoothly and boosts fine atm cheers
You'll know when you've blown a headgasket in most cases and it will be fairly evident, and if you suspect it then a compression test is needed.
well well well. i think the guy was right: - my coolant is leaking (even if i changed the water pump couple weeks ago) - the car has some difficulty to start - i can smeel like oil or petrol comming from the cap of the radiator. that started to happen just 1 week before i start to sell my car ... bad luck i guess. anyway, the guy who told me the HG needs to be done wants to buy my Z for $9K. i'll accept his offer cause i dont have the money to fix it.
Have you done a compression test yet? If you havent then DO IT and stop guessing! It's the only real way to know for sure.
Compression check will not always confirm that the gasket is blown. Sweetchuck had a problem with his but the compression test showed all was OK.
In most cases it will along with a leak down test, it's sure as hell better than guessing. Since you dont know what the hell leak down test is, I'll tell you. To put it simply it's the same thing as a compression test except that it measures the the rate that the air "leaks" out. Anyone with half a clue will do both a compression test and a leak down test if a blown hg is suspected.
