How to spot the leaking cylinder - old skool way

I found this video is pretty handy.

This is an old school technique to find out which cylinder is(or which cylinders are) leaking combustion gas into the coolant or alternatively whether combustion gas is leaking into the coolant at all.

CHECKING A BLOWN HEAD GASKET WITH NO SPECIALIZED TOOLS

And this, which gives a list of tests that can be done for testing a blown head gasket/cracked head.


HOW TO CHECK FOR A BLOWN HEAD GASKET

Not really old school, its pretty common first step check ups :) only pull the tools out when its not an obvious thing, as in porous metals and fine cracks.

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Originally Posted by johno90

Not really old school, its pretty common first step check ups :) only pull the tools out when its not an obvious thing, as in porous metals and fine cracks.

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Yeah, I actually modified the test by attaching a bottle to the radiator and filling it with coolant/water so I can see the escaping air bubbles clearly and the volume of air bubbles.
I like OldSkool Funk's approach of taking all the spark plugs out and then putting one spark plug at a time while cranking.
Pretty basic, but didn't pop into my head the simplicity and effectiveness of the test. :)

Thanks for the video links mate good work

good Vid @dom14

now I feel old school - as thats how I was taught to diagnose a blown head gasket
hahahahahaha

I can't get the link to work.....

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Originally Posted by Bigcol

good Vid @dom14

now I feel old school - as thats how I was taught to diagnose a blown head gasket
hahahahahaha

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Yeah, it's good to know these methods. Kids' these days can't add two numbers together without a calculator.
We did all in our heads. :D

yeppers

Attachment 73678

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Originally Posted by jay see

I can't get the link to work.....

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@jay see. John, sorry for the late reply mate. Links are working fine from my end. I reckon it might have something to do with your smartphone, assuming you're using the phone!? Let me know.
Cheers
Dom

if you line up all the spark plugs the leaking cylinder will be more of a washed brown colour than black carbon compared to the rest, the steam from even a small trace of coolant has a vry strong cleaning effect on the carbon that builds on the head/piston

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Originally Posted by billyj

if you line up all the spark plugs the leaking cylinder will be more of a washed brown colour than black carbon compared to the rest, the steam from even a small trace of coolant has a vry strong cleaning effect on the carbon that builds on the head/piston

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That makes perfect sense mate.
The spark plugs before of the old cylinder head looks orange/brown on the ceramic bit just above the tip.

Have a look at the below pictures of them.

Thanx

Red stuff is what happens when you use ethanol blended fuel, like E10 etc. Fucks everything, if you wanna use e10 you must use it in 95 octane blend (read label at pump cause you can get e10 from 89 through to 101 octane at different servos)
Had this issue heaps when e10 first came out, people didn't understand that the car said it was ok but didn't read the fine print as to what blend to use, Replaced many of plugs for engines running rough from it haha
Many people pretty shitty cause they all thought it would be under warranty.

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Originally Posted by johno90

Red stuff is what happens when you use ethanol blended fuel, like E10 etc. Fucks everything, if you wanna use e10 you must use it in 95 octane blend (read label at pump cause you can get e10 from 89 through to 101 octane at different servos)
Had this issue heaps when e10 first came out, people didn't understand that the car said it was ok but didn't read the fine print as to what blend to use, Replaced many of plugs for engines running rough from it haha
Many people pretty shitty cause they all thought it would be under warranty.

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Probably 'cos ethanol creates more moisture on combustion.
Mine runs on LPG most of the time & I've never used E10, so the above red residue in mine's more likely due
to coolant water getting into the combustion chamber and causing the chemical reaction to produce the red oxide buildup.
I think it's just fine ferric oxide for the most part. The high pressure & high temperature inside the combustion chamber is
ideal to produce that particular oxide of iron.

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Originally Posted by dom14

Probably 'cos ethanol creates more moisture on combustion.
Mine runs on LPG most of the time & I've never used E10, so the above red residue in mine's more likely due
to coolant water getting into the combustion chamber and causing the chemical reaction to produce the red oxide buildup.
It think it's just fine ferric oxide for the most part. The high pressure & high temperature inside the combustion chamber is
ideal to produce that particular oxide of iron.

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Unfortantly thats a complete negative. Without going to deep into the actual chemical science it cant be and never has been red oxide.

Only things that make a plug look like that are leaded fuels, fuel that has ethanol or some of those intank additives you can buy. Fyi fuels these days can have ethanol without advertising. Like bp95 has it but doesnt say unless you get the mdss and read it.

If your interested later on i can do the chemical break down of how it happens :)

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Originally Posted by johno90

Unfortantly thats a complete negative. Without going to deep into the actual chemical science it cant be and never has been red oxide.

Only things that make a plug look like that are leaded fuels, fuel that has ethanol or some of those intank additives you can buy. Fyi fuels these days can have ethanol without advertising. Like bp95 has it but doesnt say unless you get the mdss and read it.

If your interested later on i can do the chemical break down of how it happens :)

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Oo and if you habe a coolant leak into combustion chamber and burn you will find that it shall actuall clean the plugs. Same deal as water meth and also just pouring water into it when its runnig good old skool way of cleaning out all the carbo etc. (Must do above methed correctly tho please dont stick the garden hose down ur motor)

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by johno90

Unfortantly thats a complete negative. Without going to deep into the actual chemical science it cant be and never has been red oxide.

Only things that make a plug look like that are leaded fuels, fuel that has ethanol or some of those intank additives you can buy. Fyi fuels these days can have ethanol without advertising. Like bp95 has it but doesnt say unless you get the mdss and read it.

If your interested later on i can do the chemical break down of how it happens :)

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Ok, cool thanx.
I would like to believe it was not caused by ethanol in fuel 'cos I have congenital aversion to ethanol added ULP 'cos I think it's bad for conventional old engines like mine(RB30). I've never used 95RON or 98RON. It always has been 91RON or once or twice with 98RON when I was experimenting LPG & 98RON ignition time(to find out if they are closer in terms of ignition timing needs). Leaded fuel is out of question I think 'cos it is no more.
I've been under the impression that it is illegal to sell ethanol added fuel without indicating it at the servo pump. You say otherwise, which got me thinking and worried.

Please do post the break down of the chemical reaction of the red stuff on the spark plugs.

And btw, I've never added any additive into petrol, but dunno whether somebody else added anything, but hope not. :)

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Originally Posted by johno90

Oo and if you habe a coolant leak into combustion chamber and burn you will find that it shall actuall clean the plugs. Same deal as water meth and also just pouring water into it when its runnig good old skool way of cleaning out all the carbo etc. (Must do above methed correctly tho please dont stick the garden hose down ur motor)

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Yeah, that makes sense.
I've been using only the rust inhibitor in the coolant(no anti freeze) with deminerlized water.
I was once speculating whether that had something to do with the red stuff, but that's also counter intuitive 'cos rust inhibitor should've reduced the claimed "ferric oxide" in my initial argument.