Head Gasket Repair

If you’re looking for a reliable place to bring your vehicle for maintenance and repairs, you’ve come to the right place. Here at Loganville Ford, we service all makes and models of cars, trucks, and SUVs, whether you bought your vehicle from us or not. Our factory-trained and certified technicians can tackle everything from routine maintenance to major repairs, so you can come to us for problems big and small and expect to go home with a vehicle that’s as good as new and ready to face the road ahead.

Today, we’re going to take a closer look at head gasket repair, which definitely falls into the “big problem” category. Driving with a damaged head gasket can start a ripple effect, damaging more and more components of your vehicle, which puts you in danger every time you get behind the wheel and makes your vehicle more and more expensive to repair over time. That’s why it’s important to learn the symptoms that can signal head gasket damage and react quickly if you notice them. So, let’s take a look at what a head gasket is, what it does, and what might signal that it needs to be repaired or replaced.

What Is a Head Gasket?

Broadly speaking, a gasket is a part or material that’s used to make something fluid-tight. In an internal-combustion engine, that’s a very important job. There are a lot of fluids that make your vehicle work and each one needs to be kept separate since they have different properties. A head gasket keeps a seal between a cylinder head and the engine block, containing the combustion process and keeping your engine working efficiently.

Thinking about the combustion process can drive home the importance of a functioning head gasket. In order to give your car the power to move forward, fuel needs to be ignited to release its energy. This is a violent process that can be dangerous if not properly contained. Luckily, head gaskets are constructed to handle these extreme forces, made of tough materials, and purpose-built to keep everything running smoothly. But even minor damage to a head gasket can cause major problems quickly, affecting multiple systems and wreaking havoc on your vehicle.

How Do You Know if There Is Something Wrong With Your Vehicle’s Head Gasket?

Now that you understand the importance of a head gasket, you probably want to know what warning signs to look out for. One of the most visible signs of a blown head gasket is white smoke coming out of your tailpipe. While dark gray, black, or blue smoke can be signs of different issues, white smoke is usually the result of a faulty head gasket, so if you see it, you should bring your vehicle in right away and let your technician know.

Since a damaged head gasket can affect your vehicle’s fluids, you might also notice symptoms related to your motor oil or coolant. If you get a low coolant warning sooner than expected, this might be the reason. You might also notice coolant leaking out of your vehicle and pooling under it. If you check your motor oil regularly, you can also be alert for any changes in the color and consistency of the oil, in addition to its level. If there’s an issue with your head gasket, your oil might be mixed with coolant and other fluids, which can make it look milky and watery.

Finally, you might notice a change in driving dynamics if you’ve blown a head gasket. Since a properly functioning head gasket keeps your engine operating efficiently, having an issue changes the way your vehicle drives. If you notice that the engine is being rough while you’re idling or not providing as much power as usual when you hit the gas, this might be the reason why.

Other Services We Offer

If you have blown a head gasket, you’ll definitely want to bring your vehicle to a place that offers a wide range of services, like our service center here at Loganville Ford. Even if the problem is caught fairly early, your gasket issue may have already caused other problems that will need to be fixed. If your fluids have mixed together, they’ll be less effective at doing their jobs, which means that you’ll almost certainly want to get an oil change and coolant flush after getting the gasket repaired or replaced. If the problem has gone unchecked for longer, you may also need work done on your radiator, spark plugs, or engine block.

By now, you’re probably wondering what you can do to avoid a blown head gasket in the first place. The good news is that prevention is fairly straightforward: keep up with your regular maintenance schedule. Getting your oil changed and coolant flushed when necessary keeps your engine functioning smoothly, lowering your risk of blowing a gasket. When you bring your vehicle to us, we’ll always make sure to do a multi-point inspection to make sure that everything is in good working order. Getting these inspections done regularly makes it easier to catch issues early on when they’re small, more manageable, and less expensive to fix.

Of course, we do more than just help you with head gaskets. We offer a full range of services to keep your vehicle in tip-top shape so you can drive with confidence. You can come to us for new tires when yours are wearing thin or for specialty tires for performance driving, off-roading, or safely traversing ice and snow. Our technicians are also able to diagnose and fix issues with your vehicle’s brakes, transmission, battery, alternator, and more. Whether you already know what the problem is or need us to find out what’s causing a strange sound, smell, or smoke, we can get to the bottom of it and fix it up for you.

Schedule a Service With Us Today

We’re proud to serve drivers of all stripes here at Loganville Ford. If you just want to drive without spending time and effort on automotive DIY, we’re happy to take care of all of your needs, from oil changes and tire rotations to major repairs. But even if you’re an automotive enthusiast, we can still help you out with things like head gasket issues, which can take a lot of time and labor to fix. Once the gasket itself is good to go, you still need to find out the root issue to prevent it from happening again and fix any other systems that have been affected. Spare yourself that headache by bringing your vehicle to us and letting our technicians take care of this one for you.

We don’t just offer great service from skilled technicians—we also make that service easy to access. You can schedule an appointment over the phone, on our website, or through the FordPass app. We offer evening and weekend hours to make it easy for you to fit vehicle maintenance into your busy schedule. We also offer pick-up and delivery service that makes the process even more convenient, and we offer coupons to make automotive service easier on your wallet. Reach out today, and let us help you keep your vehicle in great shape for the long term so you won’t have to worry about automotive issues slowing you down and can get the most out of your time behind the wheel.