Blown Head Gasket

[Hwy9FiST]

I am dealing with a blown headgasket on my 2015 Fiesta ST. I have low miles. Under 40,000. But I have been tuned with a turbo back exhaust and ITG intake for awhile now.

I was lucky enough to only experience one slight overheating moment before being able to add more water and limp back home. Its been sitting for a month now.

I would love to repair the engine vs swapping in a reman engine. I am looking for advice on this.

Shops are coming back to me saying they will only do the work if its a used unmodified engine going in, they wont open up my engine and repair it.

I would love to put in the upgraded Mountune head-gasket and ARP head bolts to make the engine a little more bulletproof, but is that even worth it?

 

[Grsemky]

Are you certain the gasket is toast? Mild overheating isn't disastrous if measures are taken reasonably fast to cool it down... I.E. air though the radiator and heater on full

 

[Hwy9FiST]

Are you certain the gasket is toast? Mild overheating isn't disastrous if measures are taken reasonably fast to cool it down... I.E. air though the radiator and heater on full

The first indicator was the gurgling noise and loosing coolant. My oil is a milkshake and over-filled.

I have an oil cooler, but my research was saying if that fails, ill have oil in my coolant, which I dont have right now.

 

[Grsemky]

Yeah milkshake is no Bueno 😬

 

[Grsemky]

I personally would do the work myself, head gaskets are simple on a 4 banger, but I'm also a technician by trade... The biggest hurdle about during it yourself is verifying the block is flat. There's probably shops around you that can mill a head easily enough.

I'm curious why the shops refuse to work on it if it's modified. Intake and exhaust isn't an engine modification, not to mention I assume it's COD and not warranty so who cares about the internals🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[Intuit]

I'm curious why the shops refuse to work on it if it's modified. Intake and exhaust isn't an engine modification, not to mention I assume it's COD and not warranty so who cares about the internals🤷🏼‍♂️

Less complication. They can refer to a manual to calculate labor and resolve problems. When a vehicle is altered there's a much greater chance that prior and new problems will re/occur within their normal period of warranty. They want repeat business but not for the same work as that usually doesn't bode well; for profit or customer relations.

 

[Hwy9FiST]

I personally would do the work myself, head gaskets are simple on a 4 banger, but I'm also a technician by trade... The biggest hurdle about during it yourself is verifying the block is flat. There's probably shops around you that can mill a head easily enough.

I'm curious why the shops refuse to work on it if it's modified. Intake and exhaust isn't an engine modification, not to mention I assume it's COD and not warranty so who cares about the internals🤷🏼‍♂️

On the modified part, its about the warranty. If its a modified engine going in, you get no warranty on it.

Yeah, the more I look into this, its not too expensive to try and fix it myself. I already bought the Mountune Head-Gasket.

Being DIY it will be tough to look at the block. I assume its good since I've only ever had one overheat warning when the gasket "popped". (never over heated on the 14+ track days)

Should I test compression in all the cylinders before taking it apart?

 

[Grsemky]

On the modified part, its about the warranty. If its a modified engine going in, you get no warranty on it.

Yeah, the more I look into this, its not too expensive to try and fix it myself. I already bought the Mountune Head-Gasket.

Being DIY it will be tough to look at the block. I assume its good since I've only ever had one overheat warning when the gasket "popped". (never over heated on the 14+ track days)

Should I test compression in all the cylinders before taking it apart?

That's what I mean, as a technician I have a waiver for instances just like this. I would clearly inform the customer and have them sign the waiver indicating no warranty coverage, then gladly take their money 🤷🏼‍♂️

Compression test will not be accurate until after the head gasket is replaced, it if you have a tester you can do a before and after for science...

 

[sczamun]

On the modified part, its about the warranty. If its a modified engine going in, you get no warranty on it.

Yeah, the more I look into this, its not too expensive to try and fix it myself. I already bought the Mountune Head-Gasket.

Being DIY it will be tough to look at the block. I assume its good since I've only ever had one overheat warning when the gasket "popped". (never over heated on the 14+ track days)

Should I test compression in all the cylinders before taking it apart?

Get a decent cylinder head straight edge. Lay it across and try to shove a feeler gauge underneath. They aren't ridiculously expensive.