Will the oil level change when a head gasket is on the way out?

[1bad92lx]

I noticed that my car was heating up more than normal tonight and it has a bad miss also. I checked the oil and it was showing over a quart too much on the dipstick. The car keeps dying when you first start it too until it warms up. I'm thinking I've got a head gasket about to blow. Does this sound like a head gasket problem to you guys?

thanks

 

[RazorsStang]

Quite possibly. Next step you should run a compression check. Come back after you've done that.

 

[Michael Yount]

Oil level a quart too high? What does the oil look like? Is it lighter in cooler - chocolate brown - can you smell coolant in it? If you've dumped a bunch of coolant into the crankcase, a gasket is already blown; head, intake, front cover. Other possibilities include cracked components if you've recently overheated it. Is your coolant level low? Given the drivability problems you described, I'd stop driving the car and get it fixed before you do more damage. Like right now.

 

[1bad92lx]

Well I started the car tonight and it's blowing smoke everywhere. It is a combination of white smoke with fuel smoke. It's running so rich it's pathetic. The car won't stay running, it's missing really badly, it's smoking, and the oil level is too high. I'm pretty confident when I say that I think the head gaskets are gone for sure. I'm wondering if I should pull down the whole motor and rering and rebearing it also or if I should just change the head gaskets and start driving it again.

 

[Michael Yount]

If you're planning on keeping it for the long term, then a rebuild is probably a good idea; however, why don't you do a bit of disassembly, and see what you find first. Perhaps it's not as terminal as it sounds. Sorry for the probs - good luck with it.

 

[1bad92lx]

I might be better off just to do that Michael. I'm thinking of just pulling the top of the motor down tomorrow and then checking for any grooves at the top of the cylinders and also see what condition all the parts are in. I might go ahead and shave the heads a little while I'm there for some more compression because I wanted to when I put the motor in the car but due to the backed up shop I couldn't get it done then. This is a low mileage shortblock, but due to some major over-revving on my part while on the bottle, I may have shortened it's lifespan considerably. I'm sure the missed shifts is what has caused my head gasket problem. I guess I'm going to go ahead and tear it down and see what I find.

 

[Michael Yount]

Oh - Over-rev+Bottle; if it's seeing that kind of action/use/abuse regularly, then the more you do to make things right, the better off you are of course.