Say if the coolant leaked out of your car and you drove 5 miles on an overheated engine.

 

I would give a resounding YES as an answer to this one. Lack of coolant allows the car to heat up to unsafe levels,causing any metal object in your engine to expand (heads,pistons,valves, even your engine block,you name it). The hotter the engine gets, the tighter clearances become until there are no more clearances left. Overheating can cause valve stems to gall and stick, and pistons to scuff and seize. Lack of coolant + 5 miles (doesnt matter how hard, its still 5 killer high temp miles) = blown head gasket OR other serious issues including warped engine internals.

 

Is this a hypothetical question or did you drive 5 miles with no coolant?

 

from recent experience....YES... my radiator had a lil leak..just a lil one and i drove on the freeway the pressure bursted open the lil leak and before i could get to the next exit, my head gasket blew and engine was dead...
a $75 dollar job turned into a $1200 job.....

DO NOT let you car overheat, not even a lil bit

 

Correct. If you suspect a cooling problem, stop the car and shut off the engine. The price of a tow is nothing compared to the damage of a cracked block or warped heads.

The good news is you can get a lower mileage VQ engine pretty cheap, since none of the rest of us ever need to replace ours

Dave

 

Did it take the rest of your car along with it or did you get raped by the dealer or what?

 

OMFG.....why would you drive on an overheated engine its called a flatbed.

 

lol. I'm guessing that this was not a hypothetical question...

 

Your not only going to blow the head gasket but you risk the possibility of cracking the head.

-matt

 

true. overheating is one of the major causes of blown headgaskets

 

i paid $1,000 installed at a shop, but with towing and err thing else...yep added couple hundred or so to it....

 

ouch.....thats why i do all my work myself....

 

thanks for all the replies. this makes alot more sense to me now.