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1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse 2.0 Blown/cracked head? Plz help
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Guest
Anonymous Poster
junior_fm91@hotmail.com
Aug 17, 2009, 4:03 PM
Post #1 of 5
(3529 views)
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1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse 2.0 Blown/cracked head? Plz help
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Hi i am emailing your because i am in need of some help and would greatly appreciate it if someone did. i just bought my first car ( 1997 eclipse, 2.0 L) and i wanted to make sure it doesn't have a blown/cracked head gasket or is about to get one. The symptoms are : white smoke for about 1 second through exhaust when i accelerate after i stop at a stop light or sign ( happens sometimes not all), radiator reserve bubbling, but not the main radiator tank ( read that you can tell when its bubbling ). other than that the car runs great, doesn't overheat, trans shifts good. I'm hoping it could be just an oil leak and is fixable because once in a while i smell oil when i get out of the car. Please let me know. Thanks a lot.
J.R.
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Hammer Time
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
Aug 17, 2009, 8:58 PM
Post #2 of 5
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Re: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse 2.0 Blown/cracked head? Plz help
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If it's never overheating, then I wouldn't get too concerned yet. The smoke you see may be more gray than white indicating oil consumption instead of coolant. You may have some worn valve guides instead of a blown head gasket. Watch the coolant level and see if it's consuming any.
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We offer help in answering questions, clarifying things or giving advice but we are not a substitute for an on-site inspection by a professional.
(This post was edited by Hammer Time on Aug 17, 2009, 8:58 PM)
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magic_ninja
User
Aug 19, 2009, 4:03 PM
Post #3 of 5
(3516 views)
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Re: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse 2.0 Blown/cracked head? Plz help
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Here is what you will notice with a blown head-gasket (I have seen a few of these)
At idle you will see compression in the radiator (bubbles constantly in time with the engine firing. You may notice some temporary ones, but those are air in the radiator getting out if you have had it running with the cap off and not completely full of water.
"Milky" oil - this is not a super-common symptom as some people believe. Seen several cars with blown headgaskets that didn't have this
Water coming from tail pipe - this usually shows in more severe cases. You may get water coming out from other sources, especially in cold weather. More severe cases you will see it shoot out
Knocking sound even though there is plenty of oil in the system - this is from coolant entering cylinder heads and causing the cylinder to miss
Car overheating, plenty of coolant in the resevior :
**radiator cap and thermostat check out to be fine
radiator cap- small cracks in the rubber around the seal under the radiator cap
thermostat - drop the thermostat into a pan of water rolling at a gentle boil and let it warm up, you will see it slowly opens as it reaches its temp (212 water boiling point) and carefully remove it with pliers or something, carful not to bend any moving parts and watch it close as it cools off (let it do this slowly at room temp), then you know thats fine
If you can get it done, just have the cooling system pressure tested, this can save alot of trouble, pressure tests out fine then probably not what your worrying about. Just a novice here but I've had experience worrying about that. Keep an eye on temps and coolant level, color of your oil and you will know soon enough.
If your getting white smoke (make sure its smoke not just steam/smog or whatever those gases contain) for just 1 second or so, and it IS smoke, then your probably burning oil somewhere as previously mentioned
(This post was edited by magic_ninja on Aug 19, 2009, 4:04 PM)
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Loren Champlain Sr
Veteran
/ Moderator
Aug 20, 2009, 9:36 AM
Post #5 of 5
(3504 views)
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Re: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse 2.0 Blown/cracked head? Plz help
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magic; Not correcting you, just giving you some more info for your growing collection. 
When testing a thermostat, put it in some type of vessel with cold water. Insert a thermometer (candy thermometers work very well, and are cheap). Do not allow the thermostat to sit on the bottom of the vessel. Begin heating the water, watching the temperature. If it is a 180F or 195F thermostat, it should be wide open at the correct temp. Once open, remove the vessel from the heating source and watch the temp as it decreases. The stat should begin to close once it starts cooling. Even a bad thermostat may open with boiling water.
Loren
SW Washington
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