Hello Scotty
I have Kia Cee'd ISG 2009 hatchback. The car has perfect service book. Now its been driven 150.000 KM. I live in Denmark in Europe.
My car has been smoking a grey smoke. I just changed the oil on my car, and noticed on the cap a tiny bit of a "butter" there, which indicates that the head gasket is leaking (and probably really little since its a tiny bit of "butter" and coolant is leaking through the head gasket. (I didn't notice "butter" texture of the oil I removed from the engine, only this tiny bit on the cap.
After watching your video here:
How to Fix a Head Gasket Leak in Your Car
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL9QjN7AcW8
Then I have those questions:
1. I replace the coolant with a new coolant, but how much of the steel seal has to be added into the coolant? (before starting the engine for 30 minutes, turn off the engine for 30 min and on again for 30 min. Repeat this 5 times you said.)
2. If I open the spark plugs to check if they have coolant on it, and lets say that 2-3 of the spark plugs have coolant, then I will simply remove all three of the spark plugs, and also disconnect the fuel injectors for that spark plugs. Will the engine still be able to run?
3. What is none of the spark plugs have visible coolant on them? How will I then fix the leakage of the head gasket? What will I do in this situation? Just leave all of the spark plugs inside as well as the fuel injectors.
I hope that you can answer my questions 🙂
2. If I open the spark plugs to check if they have coolant on it, and lets say that 2-3 of the spark plugs have coolant, then I will simply remove all three of the spark plugs, and also disconnect the fuel injectors for that spark plugs. Will the engine still be able to run?
No, assuming it's a V6, it won't have enough "oomph" to get past the dead cylinders if you do that. You can probably afford to lose 1 cylinder and the engine will run unevenly, maybe two if the timing is right. If it's a 4-cylinder, forget about it. The engine won't stay running with any dead cylinder. I have a 1979 Pontiac that started misfiring when it was cold and as it heated up, the misfiring seemed to go away. Spark plugs had loosened up on two of the engine's 8 cylinders.
Simply unbolting the spark plugs and examining them should be good enough. Look for evidence of the plugs being steam cleaned. If there's coolant on the spark plugs, you really blew that head gasket.
3. What is none of the spark plugs have visible coolant on them? How will I then fix the leakage of the head gasket? What will I do in this situation? Just leave all of the spark plugs inside as well as the fuel injectors.
You can also buy a head gasket tester off of Amazon. I don't know the policies of auto parts stores overseas and whether or not they have tools available to rent.
1. I replace the coolant with a new coolant, but how much of the steel seal has to be added into the coolant? (before starting the engine for 30 minutes, turn off the engine for 30 min and on again for 30 min. Repeat this 5 times you said.)
Confirm it's actually a head gasket leak, first. Products like Steel Seal may work, depending on where the head gasket is leaking. It uses sodium silicate, which hardens immediately when the spark plug fires if it's leaking into a combustion chamber.
I would rather fix the issue the right way as opposed to using some kind of "miracle in a bottle". You could very easily make things worse, and coolant is the lifeblood of the engine.
That thing is old enough, are you sure you didn't knock a hose off when you were changing the oil? The PCV valve controls whether or not blow-by from the pistons gets back into the intake manifold to be reburned. Knocking the hose off that leads to the PCV valve will cause condensation on the highest part of the engine's oil system- the oil cap, especially when it's cold outside. When a shop was replacing my valve cover gaskets last year, they neglected to put the PCV valve back, and when it turned cold, I checked the oil and there was a frozen "milkshake" on it. Apparently, the shop forgot to reinsert the PCV valve. I don't go to that shop anymore.
After watching your video here: ...
That's a 13-year old video and somewhat out of date. In more recent years Scotty has recommended the Bars Leaks head gasket "sealer" in the silver bottle.
As @justin-shepherd says, test for a head gasket leak to make sure that's actually the problem. Also be aware that these kind of "sealers" are temporary bandaids at best that may work in some situations and not in others, and may clog up your cooling system. You really should have no expectation that some magic in a bottle is going to fix a mechanical problem. If you have a blown head gasket the only real "fix" is to replace it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfdS_5bKPbE
