Unconventional Reasons and Preventions for Head gasket Failure

The head gasket is one of the important parts of a car. The main task of the head gasket includes sealing the combustion chambers and the coolant and oil passages between the engine block and the head. These are very important areas to keep sealed and apart from each other as the combination of undesired coolant entering a cylinder or the oil supply is a recipe for disaster.

Therefore, a head gasket is ordinarily designed to continue working and requires no replacements, specifically with the long bolts of the engine block squeezing it in place to the desired tolerance.

What happens if the head gasket fails?

Basically, if the head gasket fails, it leads to different levels of damages and that depends on the situation when and where the head gasket fails.

If your head gasket fails at a point that once separated cylinder and coolant, you can end up with a quickly overheating engine followed by steam pouring out of the exhaust and eventually a loud bang as your engine gives up the ghost.

In another situation, if only a small failure in the gasket has occurred which can be noticed through small changes in coolant over time and yellow gunk (when coolant enters the oil system and gets mixed) floating around in your oil and caking the oil cap. And this can cause an increment in temperature gauges in comparison with the normal standard because in such a situation the liquid is lost from the cooling system.

However, the gasket itself is economical, but the labor charges can be comparatively very high which are paid for dismantling the engine to replace it. In order to perform the replacement properly, the engine head will need to be extensively checked for any damage and may need to be skimmed to make sure its flatness hasn’t been compromised by overheating.

Skimming is the process of a mile the cylinder head on a milling machine to take a very thin layer of material off the top of the head to ensure complete flatness; because any small gaps if left may be a cause for future failures.

Reasons & Preventions for head gasket failure:

There are several causes for head gasket failure, but Pre-ignition is one of them. As we all are aware that during an engine’s cycle, the fuel is combusted at undesirable times, and large pressures can occur within the cylinder head as the engine begins to work against itself. Such spikes in pressure can put strain across the head gasket which may lead it to fail.

Another possible cause for head gasket failure is Overheating. As the gasket is placed under normal conditions, but excess heat may lead to warping and permanent damage. Another sub-section of overheating is the way in which your engine warms up. The gaskets within an engine are specifically designed to contain thermal properties that allow them to expand and contract as the engine warms up and cools down respectively.

Hopefully, as you all know that you should wait for the engine to warm up fully before putting the foot down. But over-rev while cold and the engine and head gasket will be put under extreme thermal stresses as it expands too quickly, which can result in gasket failure as well as cracks in the head itself.

Another popular reason for head gasket failure is Poor gasket designs. K-Series case was one of the leading cases of a head gasket that could not cooperate with the thermal stress placed upon it during the associated engine life. The K-Series engine was revolutionary in its design, using a sand cast that had liquid aluminum poured into it. And for holding the different parts of the engine, Long bolts were then used and torque up to sandwich the K-Series together.

Regrettably, the standard gaskets were not suitable for the interaction with the aluminum engine block and this caused to let the gasket to fail as early as 40,000 miles running into the engine.

Strengthened gaskets are the gaskets that are made of different combinations of composites to increase their strength under vast modifications in temperature from the starting of the engine to the peak operating conditions. Such strengthened gaskets can be easily found in the aftermarket. Despite the hassle involved with changing the head gasket, the long term advantages of doing so could be extensive, possibly saving your car from the scrap yard.

The failure of the gasket varies according to the different circumstances, and no failure is fixed with the time and condition, it may be a complete lottery in terms of where failures on the gasket occur. Therefore the range of potential damage is fairly extreme.

In order to prevent such failures, Get your engine checked within a regular interval because as for the engine parts, nothing is to taken up lightly, from simply a small lack of coolant to a potential car killer, ‘HGF’ is not something to be taken less seriously.

So check your engine parts, engine oil, and coolant. Last but not least, Always allow your engine to warm up before driving deliberately.