Blown Head Gasket (was:Power loss and white smoke)

[Greville Bowles]

I have a question on this topic and I hope someone can shed some light
on this. I have noticed some minor coolant loss (no apparent leaking) in
my '95 90Q as well as some light brown sludge/foam inside the oil filler
cap. I'm thinking that the head gasket has been compromised, even though
it is only 3.5 years since I had it done. I asked about this at the
service desk of an Audi dealer and was told that the presence of the
sludge/foam was not definitive. I changed the filler cap to make sure it
was sealing properly.

We did a compression test before a recent change of the water
pump/timing belt/tensioners and got some interesting results. One
cylinder gave a lower reading than the others (115 psi vs. 165 to 175
for the others) We then applied 125 psi to the cylinder in question and
there was absolutely no leak down. This was not expected and I made a
phone call to get another opinion. I was told that the head gasket is
not likely leaking and to proceed with the TB etc., which we did. 

Now (4 weeks later) there seems to be more sludge present. I recently
bought a '94 90Q Sport for the wife and it has significantly more power
than my '95 (compression test shows 175 psi on all 6 cylinders). The '94
also has no cats, which may account for some of the difference. It is my
only point of reference re: acceleration of these cars.

And finally, to my question: Should I be concerned? No, wrong question.
I'm already concerned. Should I be worried about what I'm seeing here?
What action, if any, is required? Of course, if I see white smoke I will
assume the head gasket is gone and replace it ASAP.

An insight is appreciated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mr. Greville H. Bowles
Ralston CanSafe
525 Glengarry Cres.
Fergus, Ontario  N1M 2W8
Phone: (519) 787-1297  Ext. 39
Fax:   (519) 787-3732
E-mail:   gbowles at cansafe.com
www.cansafe.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Luevano [mailto:paul at clarity.net] 
Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2006 12:25 PM
To: benswann at comcast.net
Cc: fairbanks at cmu.edu; quattro at audifans.com; 200q20V at audifans.com
Subject: Re: Blown Head Gasket (was:Power loss and white smoke)

Ben Swann wrote:
> 
> BTW - did the mechanic do a compression test?

	Compression might not do it.  When I had a blown head gasket,
the compression test came back fine.  Needed to do a leak down test to
find the problem.


--
____________________________________________________________________
Paul Luevano            |   AMA * MSF   |'99 CBR 600F4  (Racebike)
http://teamdaemon.com   | USM * CCS #898|'97 CBR 1100XX (Streetbike)

Waltham, MA USA         |  NMA #116657  |'91 200TQ20V   (Winter)
_____"The purpose of man is to live, not to exist."-Jack London_____
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