The Poor Mechanic

Im poor and I work on cars, got it? Good, now lets go grab a Harbor Freight breaker bar and bust some nuts.

[twilighttheshooter]

The Blue Devil update

How many months have it been now? Eh, guess it doesn’t really matter by this point. So I bet you’re wondering if it worked, and that is a yes and no. For about a week after I used the product I had no problems; no overheats, no coolant loss, my heat worked again, etc. Then, one day I was going to go hiking with my girlfriend and her family, and bear in mind I live in Colorado, so we have good hiking everywhere. The location they chose was about a 30 minute drive, but there was about a 1000 foot elevation change (going up) to get there. The truck was great on the flats, even with a sustained 75 on the highway, but then we hit the hills and it all went down hill from there (that pun tho). A few minutes in to the climb, which was a sustained 3k rpm, she started to overheat on me. Long story short, it was just like it was just before the Blue Devil. A few weeks later I pull the heads and sure enough, blown head gasket. The compression ring was intact, but corroded top and bottom so it didn’t seal, and thusly destroyed the paper part of the gasket. I think the Blue Devil would have worked if the compression ring was in pristine condition and I just had a leak into the oil, but it was just too much for it to handle. My rating 3/5: it seems to work for many and it even worked for me under normal driving conditions, possibly a good holdover till your next payday, but not a permanent fix.

[thepoormechanic-blog]

A head gasket fix that actually works?

I know what you're thinking, probably the same thing that I was when I heard of Blue Devil's magic head gasket fix, the permanent $50 per bottle stuff that is, but it's no snake oil. I got the rather unfortunate opportunity to try it today and it surprised me. The head gasket in my truck has been going for a few weeks now, but it was hard to diagnose at first because it was so minor, no white smoke, no misfire, no missing coolant, just an overheating problem and excessive pressure in the cooling system. So for some time I just drove around with the safety bleed vent on the radiator cap lifted up, it would run warmer but it never got the chance to pressurize and blow all of the coolant out, and i did this after flushing the system, replacing the water pump, thermostat and trying a whole slew of other fixes. Finally, last weekend it shit the bed and got bad real quick, and I mean real bad. Not like "oh, I have to add a quart of coolant at every fill up and there is some white smoke from the tail pipe" naw, it was "my truck uses 2 gallons of coolant after driving for 20 minutes, I leave a smoke screen behind me so thick that you can't see head lights through it, and there is literally water pouring out of my tail pipe". So I pick up a bottle of this Blue Devil and get to work. I follow the directions to a tee and soon enough, my truck is idling, blowing water and white smoke and i start my timer for 50 minutes. After about 20 minutes of idling, my truck is running hot, but there's less smoke and there is no water coming out of the exhaust pipe, and i figured that i was either out of water or the Blue Devil was working its witchcraft. Then a minute later the temp shoots up and the engine starts to knock. So I shut her off and vent the steam, get my white flag ready just in case, then refill the radiator and start her back up again, expecting to see the fog of doom, and nothing. Not even a little bit of smoke. On top of that, the temp is back to where it should be and there is no excessive pressure in the cooling system. So for good measure I add a little more Blue Devil to the water and let her run for an extra half hour since I had to shut her down early, then finish the procedure and she's been holding strong since. Take what you will from this, but the Blue Devil is good in my book. Of course it's no replacement for an actual head gasket job, but if you're in a bind, short on cash, short on time, or you just need your clunker to last till you get your tax returns, it might be the answer you were looking for.