Leaking Coolant - Help needed ASAP

RickSample1

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Last year in May we took our car to a performance shop due to a blown head gasket. It wasn't leaking any coolant externally, they just checked the coolant and found exhaust fumes. Paid $1,250 and a week later it developed a leak at the thermostat housing. Took it back and they fixed that free of charge. I thought all was good but at every show I checked for leaks and kept an eye on my temperature just incase. End of the season I cleaned my engine all out like I do every year before I store it. My block and everything is painted, so everything is neat. Wasn't leaking anything at all.

On our receipt it shows 70,XXX miles on the car... I subtracted what our receipt says and what is on the car now... last year we drove exactly 418 miles. Last weekend we opened my hood up and noticed a pile of coolant. You followed it up and its leaking out of the top of the head around where the intake is mounted. They replaced this gasket because you can tell it looks new since it overhangs slightly.

Do you think I should hold them accountable? I'm not sure what happened, but my guess is that last year after having this done it was warmer (things expand when warmer lets face it) This is why I didn't have any leaks last year. Then when winter came my garage temperature was down to single digits which could have caused something to shrink just enough that it allowed for a leak. Either that or they just didn't tighten down something good enough and over the winter caused it to leak. Or maybe the parts they machined weren't completely flat and it caused a leak with the colder temps.

I'm pretty ticked off... I can see if I drove it 10,000 miles and it developed a leak... but I drove it 418 miles which is around 12 round trips. I went to the shop a couple days ago and talked to some young kid, he said I would have to bring it in and let the owner check it out. The owner is pretty hard... last year he was ticked off when I brought it back in for leaking at the thermostat housing.

Plan on taking the car in there tomorrow
 

96blak54

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Welcome to cars!

Naw, for real though, a blown headgasket calls for machine work. The head must definitely be decked to true up any lowspots. If the block is cast iron, usually no machining needed, the opposite for aluminum. If that engine ever got over heated, the headgaskets will weep do to reduced strengthened headbolts. Heat kills a tty bolt! And the shop most likely reused the headbolts. Can you tell the color of head gasket? I ask cause if its blue, its probably a felpro pt2 series gasket and they most definitely need machined deck surfaces. Their design is good, but need truly flat surfaces.

If you like headaches, return the car to that shop.

My suggestion, order in a reman engine and swap it out. Do all the cosmetic paints you want before swapping.

Its not cool trying to keep a show car finish while a repair shop hunched over your car
 

95opal

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So are you saying they replaced the head gasket? In amy case bothe the head and lower intake gasket need to be retorqued after a full heat cycle. Your leak sounds like the lower gasket by the china wall which is very common.
 
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RickSample1

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Welcome to cars!

Naw, for real though, a blown headgasket calls for machine work. The head must definitely be decked to true up any lowspots. If the block is cast iron, usually no machining needed, the opposite for aluminum. If that engine ever got over heated, the headgaskets will weep do to reduced strengthened headbolts. Heat kills a tty bolt! And the shop most likely reused the headbolts. Can you tell the color of head gasket? I ask cause if its blue, its probably a felpro pt2 series gasket and they most definitely need machined deck surfaces. Their design is good, but need truly flat surfaces.

If you like headaches, return the car to that shop.

My suggestion, order in a reman engine and swap it out. Do all the cosmetic paints you want before swapping.

Its not cool trying to keep a show car finish while a repair shop hunched over your car

All of the gaskets are blue, they definitely sent the stuff out to get machined you can see the spots not covered by the gasket freshly machined. Not sure if they used new bolts although my receipt had them listed so I assume so.

I would do a swap and plan on it one day, but I'd probably have a few thousand wrapped up in the engine then a few wrapped up in the install.

The shop is very reputiable... They just finished up a professional racecar and they even have engineers on site. I didn't want to take it to some back yard shop which is why I shelled out a little more. I'm not sure what it could be Unless it's one of the reasons I mentioned above or someone just didn't do a good job at it.

That's just a ton of money to drive the car 12 times. If they don't want to fix it, they could at least offer a refund so I can get it done elsewhere.
 
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RickSample1

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So are you saying they replaced the head gasket? In amy case bothe the head and lower intake gasket need to be retorqued after a full heat cycle. Your leak sounds like the lower gasket by the china wall which is very common.

The head gasket and every gasket in the area where they had to remove parts to get the head off. It looks like it's leaking at the part that bolts to the top of the head. It has a new blue gasket in that place
6
 

the5.ohh

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I can tell you as well as most people on here, they won't give you a refund. If anything they might give you a discounted labor rate.
 
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RickSample1

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I can tell you as well as most people on here, they won't give you a refund. If anything they might give you a discounted labor rate.

Yeah I don't think they will give a refund, but they need to at least make it right by replacing the leaky gasket or doing something for us.

I'll just laugh if they offer a discounted labor rate. Worst case scenario is they don't stand behind there work and I post it on all the local forums and the BBB plus tell all the local car guys about our experience.

They know I don't drive the car often, I can see if I drove it 10k miles, but I just drive it a dozen times a year. I guess that's my mistske, should have driven it more lol. But I just drive to 2 car shows a month, didn't think about driving it around the block daily but wish I had.
 

the5.ohh

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Nah man nonsense, not your fault! Something went wrong on their end. That's where shops **** up. You stiff the wrong customer who knows a lot of people, and they lose a TON of business.
 

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