flaskmaster

First, I want to say hello to everyone. I've been a part of many forums, and I always like to start off by taking the time to say thank you all in advance for your help. Now, down to business.

I have an 02 Chevy Venture, 3400 SFI V6 with around 189k miles on it. The issues with it started right (like literally 4 days before Christmas) when I was driving it to work. An exceptionally cold morning, as I was pulling out of my driveway, I noticed that the power steering wasn't kicking in. I figured it was the cold, and went to the gas station to grab some breakfast and let the engine warm. Well, it still wasn't working. I made the stupid decision to keep going to work. I didn't even make it half way before I started losing power and everything else died.

Got it towed to the place I purchased it not 9 months beforehand, and he told me it was something called a harmonic balancer. I had to google it just to figure out what the hell the thing was! Anyway, a hundred bucks or so later I got it back and it was working fine until Christmas eve.

This is where s*it gets WEIRD.

I was on my way home from work on Christmas Eve, when I noticed that I hadn't even made it 2 miles before my temp was in the red. Typical Iowa, typical snowstorm, I pulled over and let it cool. I noticed that the overflow was BOILING. Needless to say, I didn't touch it for awhile, and after it cooled I managed to get it to a shop that was about ready to close. Halfway there however, my heater started blowing out hot air and the temp went down to normal. The guy at the shop said that sometimes a secondary water pump needs to be installed to help push the coolant around. He topped me off and sent me on my way. On the way home it overheated again. Everything was closed, so it took me several hours to make it home in sub zero temperatures.

Since then I have taken it to the shop I bought it from, as well as another "reputable" shop, and they both claimed that the head gasket was blown, and it'll be over 1100$ to fix. Neither of them actually performed any diagnostics.

My reason for my posting this is because my wife and I, as well as several relatives are disputing that it is the head gasket. First of all, several times that I have worked on it, most recently when I replaced the thermostat. It would overheat, but I noticed the hose that ran to the thermostat housing didn't seem like it had any pressure at all. Like a limp noodle. My wife has, on several occasions, managed to squeeze the hose a few times, and everything would work like normal. It would be blowing freezing cold air, even when set to Hot, but then after squeezing it a few times, it would seem like everything would kick in, and it would work fine the entire time until shut off again.

My friends are saying don't buy into the head gasket, and try the water pump. My first question is this. Has anyone here ever heard of having to install a secondary water pump?

My father-in-law also picked up a bottle of that head gasket sealer, but it requires that I completely drain the coolant out of the entire system, let it run for like 2 hours, then slowly replace it.

Now, I'm not extremely competent with engines. I did replace a head gasket once, however my dad did like 80% of the work, and I was a teenager back then. I'm a computer guy

I will bookmark this thread, and check back when I can. Feel free to ask any questions, I'll put the work into it if I'm reasonably certain that it will work.

Thanks again!

sergeimoskva

Hi !
Here are some common signs of blown head gasket :
Blue / white smoke coming out the exhaust pipe , which indicates the oil burns
Drops of oil seal itself
Carbon monoxide or hydrocarbons in the cooling pond
Excessive loss of coolant with no obvious source of the leak
Loss of power or rough engine due to loss of compression
Water mixing with the oil
Crude oil mixed with water,
Low compression in two or more adjacent cylinders
Remove the dipstick and let fall drop of liquid on a hot part of the engine - oil will smoke water " sizzle "

Do you have any of these signs ?

Regards , Sergey.