Could Over Revving Do The Head Gasket?

[magpielaw]

Hi guys

It's me again with the troublesome T Sport. The other night I had a blast on the A Road, pushed the gear down to 3rd for a bit of lift, then the rev hit red so fast that I left it there for a couple of seconds before changing gear.

Since then on the next day, when I started the car up in cold, I kept hearing something flushing through (sounds a bit like water flowing through the pipes) and I once noticed a bit of steam coming out from the heater vent.

Got me worried immediately, checked the coolant level, it was quite low. Topped it up at stonecold temparature in the morning and checked again on the next day after driving for about 20 miles, lost about an inch length of coolant!

I had my head gasket done about 3 months ago due to some valves issues, I've not heard these 'flushing' noises until after the night I overrevved it. Certainly had not noticed issues with losing coolant so fast.

Will definitely seek mechanic help on Monday, but just wondering if you guys had any experience with cooling issues. I still find it hard to relate overreving to losing coolant, unless it somehow done the head gasket, which immediately led to the cooling issues over night?

[CorollaD4D]

the water flowing through pipes i hear in my car also is coolant flowing through the heater matrix which to the best of my knowledge is just at the back of the dashboard, hence why you can hear it.

over revving doesnt directly cause the head gasket to knacker but if the over revving is heating the engine to an extent the cooling system cant keep up with (e.g. when coolant levels arent sufficient) then the head may warp due to the extreme heat and thus you would have issues. fix for this is probably skim the head and then new gasket etc but i think thats a very very very worse case scenario!

[magpielaw]

the water flowing through pipes i hear in my car also is coolant flowing through the heater matrix which to the best of my knowledge is just at the back of the dashboard, hence why you can hear it.

over revving doesnt directly cause the head gasket to knacker but if the over revving is heating the engine to an extent the cooling system cant keep up with (e.g. when coolant levels arent sufficient) then the head may warp due to the extreme heat and thus you would have issues. fix for this is probably skim the head and then new gasket etc but i think thats a very very very worse case scenario!

Hey, cheers for your advise. Just took it to mechanic, after I described the symptoms he reckoned it was the heater rad gone, he felt a wet patch from the inside, put some sealant in and hopefully will find the leak but we will need watch it over the next few days. Gonna cost a bomb to do sooner or later but at least there are a bit of obvious signs to it.

I still can't see how that coincided after the I overrevved it

[CorollaD4D]

the water flowing through pipes i hear in my car also is coolant flowing through the heater matrix which to the best of my knowledge is just at the back of the dashboard, hence why you can hear it.

over revving doesnt directly cause the head gasket to knacker but if the over revving is heating the engine to an extent the cooling system cant keep up with (e.g. when coolant levels arent sufficient) then the head may warp due to the extreme heat and thus you would have issues. fix for this is probably skim the head and then new gasket etc but i think thats a very very very worse case scenario!

Hey, cheers for your advise. Just took it to mechanic, after I described the symptoms he reckoned it was the heater rad gone, he felt a wet patch from the inside, put some sealant in and hopefully will find the leak but we will need watch it over the next few days. Gonna cost a bomb to do sooner or later but at least there are a bit of obvious signs to it.

I still can't see how that coincided after the I overrevved it

again this is to the best of my knowledge but the water pump is driven off the timing chain/belt (i think) so the more you rev the engine the faster water pump spins, assuming this is correct then a faster water pump would increase the speed of coolant flow through the pipes and hence cause any small split in the piping to widen and become a proper leak?

[jw67]

Did the temperature gauge go into the red at all?Classic headgasket failure signs include misfire/lumpy idle for the first few seconds when started from cold,excessive white steam from the exhaust as well as an erratic temperature gauge reading.If you have none of these then chances are it is not the headgasket.I would have said an airlock in the cooling system but if the heater rad is leaking then the coolant level would be low from this causing air in the system and the gurgling noise you heard.Have you topped the coolant level up yet?

[magpielaw]

the water flowing through pipes i hear in my car also is coolant flowing through the heater matrix which to the best of my knowledge is just at the back of the dashboard, hence why you can hear it.

over revving doesnt directly cause the head gasket to knacker but if the over revving is heating the engine to an extent the cooling system cant keep up with (e.g. when coolant levels arent sufficient) then the head may warp due to the extreme heat and thus you would have issues. fix for this is probably skim the head and then new gasket etc but i think thats a very very very worse case scenario!

Hey, cheers for your advise. Just took it to mechanic, after I described the symptoms he reckoned it was the heater rad gone, he felt a wet patch from the inside, put some sealant in and hopefully will find the leak but we will need watch it over the next few days. Gonna cost a bomb to do sooner or later but at least there are a bit of obvious signs to it.

I still can't see how that coincided after the I overrevved it

again this is to the best of my knowledge but the water pump is driven off the timing chain/belt (i think) so the more you rev the engine the faster water pump spins, assuming this is correct then a faster water pump would increase the speed of coolant flow through the pipes and hence cause any small split in the piping to widen and become a proper leak?

That sounds logical indeed, I gotta replace heater rad and was quoted £255 inc. VAT! Surely they can't be that expensive!!

[magpielaw]

Did the temperature gauge go into the red at all?Classic headgasket failure signs include misfire/lumpy idle for the first few seconds when started from cold,excessive white steam from the exhaust as well as an erratic temperature gauge reading.If you have none of these then chances are it is not the headgasket.I would have said an airlock in the cooling system but if the heater rad is leaking then the coolant level would be low from this causing air in the system and the gurgling noise you heard.Have you topped the coolant level up yet?

Yes, when I took it to mechanic on Sat, he topped up coolant to Max as well as putting some sealants in and hope they will find the leaks but it gave me no joy. I since lost about an inchful of coolant after driving about 70 miles yesterday.

The temp gauge never hit beyond mid way and I have not experienced other signs you mentioned so thank god the gasket is still ok, however the heater rad ain't no easy fix and probably an expensive job given you have to remove other bits before you can reach it, dammit