My daughters Escort is showing early signs of a blown head gasket ie whitesh exhaust smoke. Would Radweld or similar help seal it, if only temporarilly ? Alternatively, can you suggest any other product. 
Head gasket repair
- Thread starter Rapporman
- Start date
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Take off the oil filler cap and look for signs of water in the oil which will appear as a milky emulsion. Head gaskets have to deal with enormous pressures and often corrode and break down with time. In my years of experience as an engine fitter there is really no alternative to removing the head, having it skimmed and fitting a new gasket
Many thanks Belladonna. Sorry I did not respond straight away but I requested that any reply to my post be emailed to me but I never got one!
I appreciate what you say but I am no mechanic - not even a diy one, so it would be a garage job and the cost will be more than the cars worth being an old banger - hence I was hoping a temporary repair might suffice until she gets another. I could take a chance I suppose but I was hoping that someone had tried radweld or similar and could say if it worked or not, albeit for a short while.
I appreciate what you say but I am no mechanic - not even a diy one, so it would be a garage job and the cost will be more than the cars worth being an old banger - hence I was hoping a temporary repair might suffice until she gets another. I could take a chance I suppose but I was hoping that someone had tried radweld or similar and could say if it worked or not, albeit for a short while.
Is the car actually loosing water? There are other causes of white smoke (running rich on a cld day is a common one). As has been said, look for signs of water in the oil and oil in the water. You could also ask a garag to do a compression test (which shouldn't cost much). That might be helpful in confirming the diagnosis.
If the car is really going to be scrapped anyway, I'd just live with it for a while, topping up oil and water as required. A car can run with a minor head gasket leak for quite a while. To answer the OP's original question though, Radweld and other similar products won't help - the pressures in the cylinder are too high. As a student I had a mate whose old Hillman Hunter had a blown head gasket. He'd been told that an egg white could sometimes fix a minor coolant leak so he took a spark plug out and poured the contents of an egg down the hole...
...on tunring the key, there was a thud as the cylinder hydraulically locked and the tiniest ooze of white "poached" egg from between the head and the block!
and that was the end of that!
If the car is really going to be scrapped anyway, I'd just live with it for a while, topping up oil and water as required. A car can run with a minor head gasket leak for quite a while. To answer the OP's original question though, Radweld and other similar products won't help - the pressures in the cylinder are too high. As a student I had a mate whose old Hillman Hunter had a blown head gasket. He'd been told that an egg white could sometimes fix a minor coolant leak so he took a spark plug out and poured the contents of an egg down the hole...
...on tunring the key, there was a thud as the cylinder hydraulically locked and the tiniest ooze of white "poached" egg from between the head and the block!
and that was the end of that!
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get some kseal from your local factors mate really good stuff
Many thanks DPS Services and Avocet. The car is not loosing water which I agree is the first thing to look out for but the car is sounding as rough as rats and I now think the problem is more serious. Daughters being what they are decided that daddy didn't know what he was talking about and has actually booked it into a garage. End of story but thanks all of you
just make sure daddys not paying
As it is now winter, condensation build up in the exhaust system will give you white "smoke " as the moisture burns off. Short journeys will also cause this. and also the sludge build up in the rocker/cam cover. Give the car a good run and then check to see if the problem is still apparent.
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