Blown head gasket?

So my wife called me about 2 miles from home to tell me the car wouldn't go past 25mph, I thought it was limp mode.

She calls a few minutes later to tell me she's in the middle of the highway and car died with thick smoke coming out.

I run down there and a guy had stopped to help disconnected the battery as he thought it smelt electrical. I thought it smelt like coolant.

Anyway, we have the car home now after the tow truck guy nearly killed me getting it off the truck.

I haven't tried to start it and I am scanning it now as the check engine light is on. There is no coolant in the tank

My wife said car was shaking and wouldn't accelerate before dyeing with smoke billowing out the exhaust and a bad smell.there was a black soot patch on the rd.

Any ideas as to where to look next, there are no codes but thermometer light is blinking.

Thanks
Dc

Pressure test the cooling system and see where it is going. I'd pull the glow plugs out first if you do not see any external coolant leaks and suspect an internal leak.

What year/model is this car? If it has one, it could be a failed EGR cooler.

Thanks for helping oilhammer.
I was just about to go and borrow a pressure tester. It is a 2002 Jetta tdi. I didnt think about egr cooler but yes I think it has one. Would this failing cause the symptoms described?

There is a good amount of moisture on the back of the engine which I don't know if it's oil or coolant, weep hole on egr has been leaking for a while so could be that.

Oil level is fine and looks like no contamination.

It is rare on the ALH, but yes a failed EGR cooler could cause those exact symptoms. You can take the EGR pipe off that goes into the bottom of the EGR valve, or even easier if you have one, manually open the EGR valve with a vacuum pump and look inside while it is under pressure and see if pink coolant comes up into the intake.

If severe enough, it could bend a rod.

Oh good! On the bent rod.

I was hoping maybe I might get lucky and do away with the egr and problem solved. Maybe not.

Ok I am off to get a coolant pressure tester and will investigate where it has gone, I have a mightyvac so to do your test I would take the pipe off the inlet, operate the egr via vacum pump and look for coolant in inlet whilst doing pressure test?

Thanks for your advice again.

with the egr, or egr cooler? you can by pass both for what its worth.... Could have just blown a coolant line, there's a few back there.

So I have taken of the pipe to intake, there was coolant in it.
I have put more water in and pressurized the system whilst opening the egr via vacum pump.

I can build pressure up to 15 psi then a gurgling and hissing and water goes somewhere. I think to the exhaust pipe as water is dropping out of the connection after the cat.

What does this mean, head gasket?

I don't see any water coming into intake with egr open.

Take the EGR cooler off, or at least both the pipes to it. I am betting that is your problem.

Wondering if she ran it out of coolant from a bad EGR cooler and overheated the engine until it stopped. I would be more worried the engine is completely fubared from overheating.

oilhammer said:

Take the EGR cooler off, or at least both the pipes to it. I am betting that is your problem.

Click to expand...

You'd think it was a Ford 6.0. Did one last week that had obvious coolant in the EGR cooler.

Anyway, now let's hope she didn't ingest much coolant. Pulling the glow plugs and cranking with a paper towel over the holes will show if there is much coolant there. A compression check would be on the agenda.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of pressure tester is used to check the cooling system? I have the ancient Stant pump that connects to a radiator, but that would not fit anywhere on my BEW. Is there a special fitting I can use?

I got the pressure tester from advanced autos on the loaner program. Non of the other stores seem to fit. I did see a kit at HF that looked like it might fit.

So I got a little bit into this today, I have my 3 year old to help me so not got too far!

Anyway, got the EGR off and have the pipes disconnected from the cooler, I will pick up a coupling later today to bypass the cooler.

I took out the glow plugs to find that number 3 is bent and has a line indentation at the end. It is definitely wet in all the chambers, but number 3, where the bent glow plug came from has something in the hole, it looks like it could be the remnants of the end of the glow plug smashed into the hole, but it is hard to tell.

Does this tell us anymore to the story? I am fearing it does!

I will pick up a coupling anyway to test the coolant system for pressure.

Wonder if it dropped a valve and punched through a coolant passage. I would do a compression check before anything else.

I think this may be so.

I bypassed the EGR cooler and when doing the coolant pressure test it is still sending water to the exhaust and it is also pushing mist out of the number 3 glow plug hole now that that is removed.

Is it wise to try and do the compression test just for conformation? I am guessing head off next to see what is happening in there?

Ok so I took the valve cover off.

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So looks like head is coming off next.

What are the chances I can get away with just the head being damaged?

Picture doesn't work. Load it up to the server here(it under photos on the top bar, login with your username/password) and then link to it.

Is it working now?

Yes it is and that is quite a mess. That is almost certainly a dropped valve.

I think it is most probably due to an earlier problem where the bolts backed out behind the ip pulley and jammed the engine. Who knows but either way I will take the head off and investigate but am I most likely looking for a new (used) engine?

Yep. Sorry man.

So I finally got to taking the head off, looks like no saving this one?








What would be the next step here if I wanted to try an salvage this engine? I think I will just find a new engine but would it be to clean up the cylinders and inspect for damage, then what?

Also, I noticed on the head in the cylinder where it is damaged you can see threads where the glow plug goes in, this is not so on the other cylinders, what is the deal with that?

Yep. Inspect for damage and be ready to look for another engine.