Once again... Some more problems....(cry)

[Liam]

Hello all,

(seems like I've been asking a lot of questions these day and all of them are not on performance but fixing... damn...)

once again, bad news happened on my car again
I took my car to a mechanic today because my car has been smoking white smoke from exhaust about a week...

he didn't have time for a full check today so his best guess after a test drive are:

- Bad head gasket
- Bad turbo

so my car is around 87k right now and is on stage 2 with TBE... I never really push hard on it since the day I got the car (around 83k)

so just want to have few questions and hope you guys can once again help me out ...

how can you tell when a head gasket is blown?...
I mean, I didn't feel my car running slower or bad since the day it had that white smoke... but I can smell a little bit of fuel burning from the smoke (like coolant or gas... or mixed?..)... could that be a bad head gasket?
or could that be a bad turbo and cause it burning coolant or oil?...
my mechanic said it doesn't worth it to fix the head gasket because it is too expensive and my car is too old... I should consider to sell my car or do a swap, what do you guys think?... I will take my car to his shop again to make sure what is happening inside... just want to see if I can get some detail before I take my car for a check again... so...
please let me know if you guys need any more information... thank you very much... thanks for your help once again...

[Knome]

drain your oil and see if there is coolant in the oil. Thats how you can check if its a head gasket problem.

[Liam]

so if I do an oil change
I can see coolant in the oil I guess?..
what will it looks like? will the coolant be visible in the oil or will they mixed up together?...

thanks for your reply first

[Knome]

I would guess its mixed in because coolant is part water and oil and water don't mix. So i will come out together but separate latter? I don't know, i've never seen it done i just know thats how to tell.

[Liam]

yeah I will try
actually I'm planning to change my oil this week

[302@12psi]

Your car would have to be in horrible shape for it not be worth a headgasket replacement. I'd say as long as you didnt over head and warp the heads you should be on the road under 700 dollars (worst case) for a headgasket.

The turbo if it was going would smoke alot. I'd imagine you could probaly see the smoke while the car is at idle.

[Knome]

well good luck with the oil change but in the mean time i would recommend NOT driving the car. If your oil is clean then you can drive the car BUT NOT in boost because your turbo is kaput.

[Liam]

Your car would have to be in horrible shape for it not be worth a headgasket replacement. I'd say as long as you didnt over head and warp the heads you should be on the road under 700 dollars (worst case) for a headgasket.

The turbo if it was going would smoke alot. I'd imagine you could probaly see the smoke while the car is at idle.

so should I better consider a short block swap or just replace the gasket?...
or 87k is too old for a 03 bugeye?...

I don't want to say goodbye to my car that soon

[Liam]

so should I better consider a short block swap or just replace the gasket?...
or 87k is too old for a 03 bugeye?...

I don't want to say goodbye to my car that soon

and if I do a swap, what kind of short block should I looking for?
I'm planning to go to stage 2.5 actually...
just got all my parts and bad news happened...

thank you guys, thanks for helping

[bug_eye_guy]

A head gasket is not that big of a deal. I say to the mechanic who says its not worth doing. If it does end up being the head gasket, find a new mechanic, not the dude that said you should ditch the car. Good luck

[SD_GR]

he didn't have time for a full check today so his best guess after a test drive are:

- Bad head gasket
- Bad turbo

so my car is around 87k right now and is on stage 2 with TBE... I never really push hard on it since the day I got the car (around 83k)

so just want to have few questions and hope you guys can once again help me out ...

how can you tell when a head gasket is blown?...

If it's blown internally there would be water in the oil. This can be seen best by oil analysis from a lab. You don't care though, since there are easier ways to know if you've got a major failure:
- Does the car overheat?
- Did your mechanic mention testing compression, by the way (not directly related from the description but I'd have liked to know personally?)
- Did your mechanic mention pressure testing the cooling system?

If it's a turbo there's also ways of telling:
- Boost?
- Smoke externally?
- Turbo juices spilling out?

Find someone with the time to actually test the car. You've no idea what, if anything, is wrong yet from what's been posted, and it'll save you time and money to find out one way or the other.

[Liam]

i see

Thanks a lot for your reply
that's what I'm thinking because he said it's going to be around $1500 to fix it...
I will check out the price with other shop, thanks

[SD_GR]

i see

Thanks a lot for your reply
that's what I'm thinking because he said it's going to be around $1500 to fix it...
I will check out the price with other shop, thanks

That comment brings us back to my original point really: $1,500 to fix what? If he threw out a number with no real idea of what's actually wrong, I'd worry. Good luck and be cautious.

[blackzwrx]

I didn't read the whole post, but I know from another of this guys threads that he is running XPT stage2 map, but I don't see any up-pipe on the mod list So I will let that speak for it's self. Rember if you don't have one, It's on the list of necc. mods needed to run stage2 maps. <----To the turbo, and maybe some part of the motor. Hopefully not.

[Liam]

If it's blown internally there would be water in the oil. This can be seen best by oil analysis from a lab. You don't care though, since there are easier ways to know if you've got a major failure:
- Does the car overheat?
- Did your mechanic mention testing compression, by the way (not directly related from the description but I'd have liked to know personally?)
- Did your mechanic mention pressure testing the cooling system?

If it's a turbo there's also ways of telling:
- Boost?
- Smoke externally?
- Turbo juices spilling out?

Find someone with the time to actually test the car. You've no idea what, if anything, is wrong yet from what's been posted, and it'll save you time and money to find out one way or the other.

my car never overheat before, it runs fine actually, just a lot of smoke when I push a little bit high RPM (4000-5000)
we didn't actually have any test, but will do it soon
and for the boost, I've another post and seems the boost is running a little bit lower than usual (XPT stage 2)
smoke is from the exhaust and is white, only can be seen after I push hard..
and so far, my car doesn't seem to have any leaking... so I guess not

thanks for your reply, helps a lot