car (and likely the engine too) has about 194,000 miles.
Looking thru head gasket symptoms, some look familiar but some things don't add up.
Tell me your thoughts -
Signs that say maybe -
There seems to be a bit more water coming out of the tailpipes than normal, sometimes leaves small puddles on ground if sitting idling a while, like say 5 minutes or more. Said water does not have any taste. Exhaust smells funky but not sweet, almost sulfuric, but is not colored. Not like white smoke. Coolant system seems to be losing more than normal, I will guesstimate maybe I need to add one cup every 200 miles. The recent external leak was fixed.
Recent issue - the idle seems like it was a bit rougher than normal today. Maybe my paranoia. Not nasty bad but just not perfect like it has been.
Lacking signs -
Heater works well. At highway speeds, the temp holds steady.
However, when city driving, it will work it's way slowly to the 210 mark and soon after kicks on the fan, then temp drops to 210'ish or below.
Engine oil looks good, no sign of "chocolate milk" or "mayo". Engine IS losing a bit of oil but from an external leak that I can't find. (It is slow, not from the previously fixed distributor plug)
So, I honestly think gaskets might have a tiny leak. My questions -
1) if the gasket(s) fail, will the engine slowly degrade performance and such or will it be like one day I go out and start it and it runs like crap? Most times when I had a bad head gasket, it was like that when I got the car so it was already degraded.
2) If I have to do this, How bad a job am I in for if I need to do this? Will there be steps in removing that will turn out to be a night mare, like disconnecting the exhaust?
Other engines I have done head gaskets before - Zetec (4 banger contour), 2.8 and 3.1 GM engines, 2.2 chrysler (4 banger K car engine)
