Hi all, wife has an '02.

Developed the common radiator leak under intake, drove it till hot. called me, I had her wait till pressure was vented off by leak, open and refill with water. Had to refill several times as I was out of town and she needed to get back and forth to work.

She said she lost power when it got hot. This made me queasy, but thought maybe steam venting from rad went in intake, because it started and drove just fine afterwards.

Replaced radiator when I got back to town, started up and drove fine.

Wife said it started hard the next morning. Again that evening. I tried starting, and it took ~10 minutes of cranking to start. Ran super rough for 5-10 seconds, then perfectly smooth. Drove fine.

White smoke out tail pipe, bubbles in coolant. #@%&^. Front bank is 140-155 psi. Didn't check rear. It builds pressure in cooling system just cranking for 15 seconds. Tiny trace of coolant/steam @ oil filler cap. Oil is not really milky, just a little brown.

Would you bother with a hg? Yard in town has a 112k motor out of a 2002 Altima for $500. I just have this sinking feeling like cold water in a hot motor might have cracked a head or the block. Motor has 170k on it. Is there anything else I should be worried about?

TIA for the advice!
Eric

 

Car-parts.com

 

Eric, I'd just as soon go with what you're thinking, that Altima engine at the junkyard. It's unlikely that the block/head are cracked, honestly, but at 170k, headgaskets only are a crapshoot. You're probably about at timing chain mileage anyway? So now you pull the heads, get them decked/re-worked, check the block for true and clean it all up, pull the front of the engine to replace the timing components, siht, you might as well just yank the engine and replace, it'd be cheaper and easier to go that route, I believe, if you can do the work yourself, it's really not that difficult. You're gonna get, what, a 30? 90? day warranty out of the junkyard? Where you could spend all this time and money on your headgasket job only to have something unrelated fail the next day.

Know what'd be good to try right about now? This: http://www.steelseal.com

I know, I know, snake oil, yadda yadda, but wth, it's $70 and it's guaranteed. I was gonna try it in my car when I bought it with a BHG, but after discovering the level of coolant contamination in my crankcase I figured the rings were toast, so I just dropped another engine in.

Good luck, whatever you decide on.