I keep telling my brothers parents to stop driving the car. They think that since it can and will start, that it is ok to drive. :ugh: So I want to scare them and tell them what can actually happen to the car if they drive it. So I want to know what can or will happen to a car if it is driven on with a blown head gasket?
you can warp the crap out of the head for one, and in some cases you can do damage to the block as well
It'll overheat, engine will crack from temperature/fuel lines will melt/rip from temperature and it will catch fire. Scary enough?
^That pretty much does it! Not sure about the smoke. Again, it's not me driving it. I'm in EP and the car is in WBL. What does the smoke mean?
it depends where the leak is. if the coolant is leaking into the combustion chamber in quantity, then it'll burn off, and cause white smoke. but, you can also have HG failure that will just cause the coolant and oil to become one. also, if there's oil in the coolant, there's coolant in the oil. I don't think it's really possible to have a one-way leak. especially considering the fact that the coolant is pressurized. if you're just loosing coolant into the combustion chamber, it really doesn't hurt it too much as long as you don't let it run low and overheat. but if the fluids are mixing, different story (unless you change the fluids every few hundred miles). Coolant makes terrible lubricant, and oil makes terrible coolant. they're really not interchangeable.
