Bad Head on Ecotech?
#1
08-30-2012, 08:18 AM
Bad Head on Ecotech?
Hi Folks. My daughter has a 2003 Olds Alero with a 2.2L Eco Tech engine. Last week the water pump went on it and I believe the head was damaged (warped possibly and/or the head gasket blown). My question is: How do I know if she damaged the block? I believe the block is also aluminum and I would hate to replace the head on a bad block. Is there anyway to tell? Is it likely the block would be damaged?
Here are the sequence of events that lead me to this conclusion:
- Last week she said her car was running rough about two miles from home. She also said the check engine light was on and the low coolant light (errrr kids - should have shut it off then but....). Clearly she overheated the engine.
- I started it next day ran fine. Checked Oil - no water in oil that I could see. Put water in cooling system took it for a drive, seemed to have plenty of pep but water pump was clearly leaking.
- decided to purchase water pump. Also had to buy special tool to hold timing chain since pump is driven by timing.
- Replaced pump and thermostat (while I was in there) and car ran fine for about 10-15 min. It slowly started to run rougher as engine got hot. It eventually started running very rough and then shut off. When I went to start it back up, loads of white smoke puffed out the exhaust. It would not restart. I have not tried to restart it since then (a few days ago).
- I did check oil and still no water is appearing in oil.
- At this point I suspected since the pressure was back in the coolant system, it found the weak links in a possible damaged head and water got in the cylinders???
- I ran a compression test on all four cylinders and got the following:
#1 195
#2 140
#3 105
#4 135
I am thinking the head is shot but before I spend the money on a new head (found a OEM head brand new for $695 fully loaded with cams and all) I wanted to run this past you experts here and see if there was any opinions that could help. The car is in very good shape and I only paid $500 from a relative for it. The engine has around $140K miles on it.
Thanks!
John
Here are the sequence of events that lead me to this conclusion:
- Last week she said her car was running rough about two miles from home. She also said the check engine light was on and the low coolant light (errrr kids - should have shut it off then but....). Clearly she overheated the engine.
- I started it next day ran fine. Checked Oil - no water in oil that I could see. Put water in cooling system took it for a drive, seemed to have plenty of pep but water pump was clearly leaking.
- decided to purchase water pump. Also had to buy special tool to hold timing chain since pump is driven by timing.
- Replaced pump and thermostat (while I was in there) and car ran fine for about 10-15 min. It slowly started to run rougher as engine got hot. It eventually started running very rough and then shut off. When I went to start it back up, loads of white smoke puffed out the exhaust. It would not restart. I have not tried to restart it since then (a few days ago).
- I did check oil and still no water is appearing in oil.
- At this point I suspected since the pressure was back in the coolant system, it found the weak links in a possible damaged head and water got in the cylinders???
- I ran a compression test on all four cylinders and got the following:
#1 195
#2 140
#3 105
#4 135
I am thinking the head is shot but before I spend the money on a new head (found a OEM head brand new for $695 fully loaded with cams and all) I wanted to run this past you experts here and see if there was any opinions that could help. The car is in very good shape and I only paid $500 from a relative for it. The engine has around $140K miles on it.
Thanks!
John
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