buying a car with a "leaking head gasket"?

[SEgirl]

Mods--not quite sure where to put this so please move if necessary.

Found another 93 SE sedan for sale, Geneva green, so am going to look at it today. Ad says "leaking head gasket but is still in running condition". In doing research, I find a lot of info on blown head gaskets vs. leaking so is that the same thing? Car doesn't have much less miles than mine, so it would probably be a parts car more than anything (depending on exterior shape).

[wagon-r]

No real difference between leaking and blown. "Blown" might refer specifically to the gasket between two cylinders being blown out and "leaking" might refer to coolant fluid or oil getting into the cylinders. But the terms are usually not used specifically. And the remedy is the same.

[sonikaccord]

Yep. It may need to be machined if warped. You know "regular" car owners don't really care so it may have other issues

[SEgirl]

Took a look at the car and ended up buying. I think it's definitely going to be a parts car as I think it just has way too many issues. In looking for signs of a blown head gasket, I didn't see any coolant anywhere, no white smoke coming out the back, oil color looked fine (but needed to be changed), and the engine barely got hot (my car actually runs hotter than this one). It ran fine and there was no hesitation/missing/stalling, other than when the compressor and fan kicked on. I asked what made her think the head gasket was leaking and she said "my mechanic friend said so" but that it was shaved down. So, if he did that, sounds like it was repaired? Power steering doesn't work and she said the pump was bad. A/C actually works, and mine doesn't.

As for the exterior, it looks like it was repainted as it had a lot more metallic than stock and there was no pin stripe. Color did look close to stock and there was hardly any oxidation, so it's in better shape than mine. The plan is to replace my car's damaged parts with those, and even if the paint color is a little off, it should still look better than oxidation and peeling clear coat. Has all original SE rims.

I can't tell if the front seats are original or just re-covered recently. Inside was trashed--I think there was more crap in the car than at the local landfill.

[Losiracer2]

They can leak before they blow completely.

When my coupe was F22 originally, it leaked between 2 and 3 and could stumble for the first 30 sec. when starting, then ran fine and didn't overheat.

head was warped though, almost always need to mill the head just to be safe.

Mine went at 179k.

[SEgirl]

Did you have any other symptoms that the head gasket was blown besides the leak?

They can leak before they blow completely.

When my coupe was F22 originally, it leaked between 2 and 3 and could stumble for the first 30 sec. when starting, then ran fine and didn't overheat.

head was warped though, almost always need to mill the head just to be safe.

Mine went at 179k.

[Losiracer2]

Did you have any other symptoms that the head gasket was blown besides the leak?

nope, nothing. didn't smoke white or have milky colored coolant. I think I caught it very early on as it started to leak, so I didn't cause any damage to anything else.

i really could've just gotten away with a decking of the head and a new gasket most likely, but I went all out and bought new ARP headstuds, 3 angle valve job, bisimoto IM gasket, ended up spending about 500 bucks on everything, only to drive it about 5k miles and swapping in an H22 LOL.

[SEgirl]

I'm going to pick up the car tomorrow. Going to get a truck and trailer as I don't feel comfortable driving 80+ miles home. One of the first things I'm going to do is degrease the engine bay since there's oil everywhere. I'm curious if there's a new leak(s) or if that's just old oil.