HGF or just the inlet manifold gasket?

[Shaun_E]

On leaving Angus and Tessa's wedding reception, Peter C noticed that there was a strong smell of coolant from my exhaust and a fair bit of white smoke at startup. The worst scenario was that the head gasket had failed. However during a conversation with Dave Andrews, he mentioned that it was possible that it was just the inlet manifold gasket (coincidentally also documented on Angus' website). This weekend I replaced the Inlet manifold gasket and all seems to be well - there is now no smell of coolant in the exhaust and there was very little smoke at start up. There had been no other symptoms of HGF so fingers crossed the inlet manifold gasket was the problem - it was the old black style black one now replaced with the green one. My only worry is that there wasn't any obvious sign of coolant getting through although the gasket had certainly seen better days.

 

Is there a definitive test for HGF that I should conduct?

 

Yellow SL #32

[oilyhands]

Check for hydrocarbons in the coolant, if coolant is getting into a cylinder then it stands to reason that combustion gases will also be entering the coolant since the pressure differential is enormous. I would also expect the coolant to be pressurized. If you have hydrocarbons present in the coolant then it's pretty certain to be HGF, if not then cross your fingers.

 

Oily

[Ash.Bailey]

Now that you have repaired the fault just wait and see if the coollant level drops

[Shaun_E]

I have no other HGF failure symptoms - coolant level was not noticeably dropping before although there was a very small leak. I will find out tonight if the leak has now gone - if it has I think I can be fairly confident that the inlet manifold gasket was at fault.

Where can I get the coolant checked for hydrocarbons? Do I need to have run the car for a while before they will show up?

 

Yellow SL #32