Monday, November 22, 2010

Miata HEAD GASKET CHANGE? theres smoke coming from the headers how do i replace it costs?

i think this is whats bad but im not exactly sure an idiot i lent my car to overheated it really bad, ever since smoke just comes out from the exhaust piping around where it comes out of the engine is this the famous %26quot;blown head gasket%26quot;?Miata HEAD GASKET CHANGE? theres smoke coming from the headers how do i replace it costs?If it smoke was coming out the exhaust pipe (after the engine warms up) that was white, I would say yes.

But if it is smoke off the exhaust header, I would say no. It could be spilled oil.

However at least one heater tube runs under this assembly and there is an O-ring at one end that may fail, there is also a heater hose in that area that can develop a leak. The flange that connects these to the water pump is a trick to do as vision in the area is restricted.

If these hoses or fittings have failed you would have the symptoms you describe also.

One more thing that may be a fault is the water pump. The Miata engine does not over heat unless there is a failure some place in the coolant system. A water pump failure can be expected at about 15 years of service or 140 thousand miles (these numbers are based on when mine failed).

Either way it would seem a trip to the shop is in order.Miata HEAD GASKET CHANGE? theres smoke coming from the headers how do i replace it costs?Not necessarily...you could have just warped the header and you are leaking exhaust gases.



You can test for a blown head gasket in a number of ways. 1) you can buy a test kit at Kragen's, Autozone, etc. that tests for combustion gases in the coolant; 2) you can pressure the cooling system with a pump and then pull the spark plugs and look for coolant on the spark plugs.



Either way is a sure fire method.



Don't pull the head unless you have to. You may only need to remove the headers and have them planed to flatness again.Miata HEAD GASKET CHANGE? theres smoke coming from the headers how do i replace it costs?That sounds like it's your exhaust gasket not the head gasket that's leaking,if it was your head gasket,you would be losing compression power and a whistling sound,furthermore if your head gasket was blown because of your engine overheating,the heads would have to be checked for warpage