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Blown head gasket or cracked head ??????

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Posted by: ovsims

Is there a way to tell the difference from being a cracked head or the head gasket is blown. I have a 96 maxima that has one those problems. there's a lot of back pressure from the radiator. And the oil is milky lookin'. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to try and fix it or just get rid of the car.

Posted by: Osaín

That sounds like oil mixed with antifreeze to me. Does it run badly? If it runs ok, it may just be a head gasket. BTW...which motor do you have? The SOHC or the DOHC VE30DE motor?

Posted by: SoonerLS

AFAIK, the only way to tell is to pull the head, but you have to do that to fix either problem anyway. If it's a gasket failure, it should be pretty obvious, but that doesn't necessarily eliminate a cracked head. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have it checked by a machine shop, if for no other than to make sure the head isn't warped. When they're checking it, they should be able to magnaflux it or otherwise check for problems.

Posted by: ovsims

Quote:

Originally Posted by Osaín

That sounds like oil mixed with antifreeze to me. Does it run badly? If it runs ok, it may just be a head gasket. BTW...which motor do you have? The SOHC or the DOHC VE30DE motor?

Yeah it runs like SH*&

Posted by: Wicked_LS

heres the deal it is either a headgasket or possibly your lower intake manifold gasket. i pulled the lower off of my supercharged mustang this weekend and it looked to be like the intake gasket went. it acts the same way as a blown headgasket mily oil sweet smoke all of that just not as difficult to fix. So trust me on this its your headgasket more than likely but check your intake gasket as well.

Posted by: 2001LS8Sport

Be sure and get the cooling system flushed. It will take some effort to get all the milkshake out of there.

Posted by: Frat-man-du

Be carfeul- once antifreeze gets in the oil it can screw up the main bearigs (pitting will start real soon). Head gasket is most common and like SoonerLS mentioned you have to have the head magnifluxed once off to check for cracks.

I did a head gasket only deal on my 85 T-Bird only to find out the hard way it was a cracked head - wasted a whole friggin day and $100 in a 'heads up' gasket kit.