2001 Chevy Venture possible head gasket issue

THOMASD10

MEMBER
2001 CHEVROLET VENTURE
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
170,000 MILES

Recently my minivan has over 170,000 miles and tempature gauge was going up and down. Also on occasion would overheat. Car was using a lot of coolant and suspected coolant was leaking somewhere. Mechanic found leak at intake gasket and replaced lower intake gasket which cost about $1000. About 3 weeks after car overheated again and white smoke was coming from exhaust. Now mechanic thinks its head gasket. Due to high cost of fixing head gasket and time involved, we are thinking of using a sealant to correct the problem. Would you recommend using a sealant to fix this issue and if so which one? Also should mechanic have checked for head gasket when replacing intake gasket?

1 Reply

DAVE H

MECHANIC
13,383 POSTS

Hello .. thanks for the donation .. much appreciated

I alway's advise my customers to replace the headgasket's on this motor when a leak is discovered at the intake gasket's on this motor to be sure we have repaired the whole problem as the leaking intake can cause headgasket to fail !! (not all mechanic's will agree) and alleviates the need to repair the head at a later stage (restripping down the motor and more expense) I would now replace the headgasket's as using an addative to block the leak rarely works in the long term so the headgasket's will need replacing eventually .. try to come to an agreement with your mechanic over the labor cost's maybe he can cut you a break !!

Hope this helps