Re: Possible 5kcst Blown Head Gasket Woes

["Douglas Hurst Quebbeman" <dougq@iglou.com>]

> On Sat, 20 Jun 1998, Douglas Hurst Quebbeman wrote:
> 
> > Before I spend money I don't have, what can I do to
> > make certain of my diagnosis?
> 
> On mine, the gasket blew so hard that I had a spirt of coolant out the 
> back of the head everytime the #5 piston came up.
> 
> > Lastly: any estimates on cost to repair?
> 
> A few hundred by time the dust settles probably.

Looks like the head gasket might be ok, the other feared 
failure mode seems to be maybe what happened.

Last night, I was driving along at about 60mph with the
cruise control on, and then needed to pass someone. I'm
not sure exactly what I did, but the engine did rev high,
but not (I didn't think) pas the red line. But the lack of
power began immediately after that.

But last night, I detected no smoking on the way home. That
in contrast to large amounts of smoke- white with blue tinge
during idle, more purely white under throttle.

The blue tinge tended to make me think that oil was burning,
the purer white smoke looked like water. On the '86, there is
another source of both those things dumping into the exhaust-
namely through the turbo.

So I just went out and pulled the IC and the hoses, and lo and
behold, where only a few weeks ago my turbo had no detectable
play whatsoever, it's now flopping around like a drunken Norweigan
sailor.

Does that make sense? If the turbo bearings suffered catastrophic
failure, might I see water and oil both dump into the exhaust? 

Or, did I blow both the head gasket *AND* the turbo?

Should I look for more failed items? Melted pistons?

Most importantly: is there a way to rule out a blown
head gasket? Will a compression test tell me this (I
can do that myself easily enough)?

Thanks again, -doug q
--
-Douglas Hurst Quebbeman (dougq@iglou.com)       [Call me "Doug"]
    QuattroClub USA# 4536     Audi International # 100024
       74 100LS Auto,     84 Coupe GT 
       77 100LS Auto,     86 5Kcstq QLCC 1.8bar  
"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away."  -Tom Waits