Blown head gasket or not??

devlsh1

Active Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Location
High Point NC
Went wheeling and thermastat housing gasket leaked...over heated. Got new gasket, wheeled and drove home.
A week later replaced serpentine belt with non A/C belt to bypass compressor to get a few extra MPG's.
Drove Jeep about 10 miles and lost power and shuttering. Also noticed coolant coming from behind water pump (weep hole i guess).
Could me over tightening the belt have caused the waper pump to fail and seem like blown head gasket?
Didnt see milk shake on dipstick from mixing with coolant.
Thanks
 
Check for water mixed in with your oil. It will have a "chocolate milk" look to it.

Should have some white smoke out the exhaust also.

If the water pump failed you should have seen the temp gauge go up and should have overheated.

I'm not sure if it's possible... but could you have gotten the belt configuration wrong, IE the water pump turning the wrong way?
 
take your cap off your radiator, and check for compression in the coolant system, i had a head gasket go on my xj a while back and it would shoot a gieser out of it while running, but yes check for the milkshake too, or go to harbor frieght and by a cheap, coolant system tester, it hooks to your radiator cap and has a pump attached to it, you pump up pressuer on the coolant system, and then check for leaks or pressure loss.
 
As I had stated in original post there wasnt any "milk shake" on oil dipstick...I will check belt routing...and I will see about getting the raditor tester.....
When I drove it and started having loss of power and coolant coming from water pump area it never over heated or got close. check engine light did come on, but I pulled the battery off and it never came back on.

Thanks for the suggestions
 
Sounds like water pump seal went and was causing leak. Could be related to the t-stat replacement or not.

You didn't say what engine you have but depending on the cooling system and coolant mix you could have simply boiled over from the t-stat issue and not really over heated to much and are now having a pump leak.. Its a jeep, these things happen..
 
Sorry, its a 99 TJ with 4.0. Could the loss of water pump or seal cause head gasket type symptoms??? I have new water pump gasket (came in head gasket kit). Does anybody think replacing the pump and gasket would fix loss of power/compression???
 
devlsh1 said:
Does anybody think replacing the pump and gasket would fix loss of power/compression???
Click to expand...

If you've lost compression you probably have a much more serious issue. You can probably get a loaner compression tester from AZ. Very simple to use.
1. Pull the fuel pump fuse, depressurize fuel system(hold the key in the on position for a few seconds).
2. Remove a spark plug and insert adapter.
3. Turn the key over for 3 seconds or so and record your results.
4. Repeat steps 2-3 for every cylinder.

The 4.0 shouldn't be below 100 psi on any cylinder, and no variance of 25 psi or greater between cylinders. If you have a damaged head gasket (or something else internal) it will usually show up in the test results.

If the cooling system wasn't operating correctly it should run fine until it gets hot.

You should be able to take the serpentine belt completely and take it for a SHORT drive (Don't let it overheat). Be sure your battery is charged or you have someone close by to give you a jump. This should tell you if your water pump is causing your issues. This is unlikely, but possible. With the belt off you should be able to turn the water pump freely.
 
devlsh1 said:
Drove Jeep about 10 miles and lost power and shuttering. Also noticed coolant coming from behind water pump (weep hole i guess).
Click to expand...

Could be 2 completely different issues. My car suddenly lost lota of power Saturday, with lots of shaking and vibrating coming from under the hood. I thought i had serious problems, until i put a set of plug wires on it and fixed it. i bet you just happened to notice the water leaking while you were trying to figure the other out. If there is no water in the oil, and no oil in the water, why do you think the head-gasket is blown?
 
When you had the water leak was it blowing all over the motor? Are you sure the the housing gasket was the problem to start with? If your not mixing water and oil or losing water you head-gasket should be ok.
 
it has been 4 years since I replaced the plug wires (maybe 5000 miles)... The coolant was streaming from behind the water pump. I am going to change out pump, gasket and thermistat...lets find out if anything changes....
Thanks for the input guys
 
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