Hey Folks,

I've been searching but hopefully this will help me out a bit quicker. Here's the full story. I'll try to keep the details intact and offer some entertainment:

Attempted replacing ball joints on my Accord but after going through 2 breaker bars, I figured letting people with the proper tools would be much quicker. Was taking a road trip in a week so wanted to have it done. Day before I brought it in I noticed coolant leaking. Jacked it up...looked like a corroded radiator hose clamp.

Mechanic calls, says its a crack in the radiator. Frustration ensues. I say, "Just take care of it".

Get the car back and there's a smell of exhaust inside when the heater is on and the car is idling. Think the radiator might need to be broken in some. Take the road trip down south so don't need the heat. Get back to the north and the problem is still there. Take it back to shop.

Mechanic quickly diagnoses it as leaking Valve Cover Gasket, pointing to some oil on the front left corner of engine (while standing in front of car). Same conclusion I came to with my research. Replaces gasket, but still an exhaust smell inside. He recommends driving for the weekend to burn off excess oil.

Come Tuesday I look under car. Even more oil than the first time. Open the hood, now the back right corner of engine seems to be leaking/covered in oil...it's on the hood, it's on the the wires...it's like someone took a hose and sprayed oil all over that quadrant of the engine and parts.

Take it back again. Guy says, "The gasket was bad needs to be replaced". They do it. Next day I'm driving, come to a stop sign and the engine starts bogging down a bit. Later that night before leaving a restaurant I have my lady friend pull the car out to see if there's still a leak. Sure enough, there's spots where I was parked. Not AS BAD as previous, but a leak none the less.

Next time I drive it, a day or so later, the bogging down of engine is far more apparent. Car almost shuts off at a light near my house. Had about a 20 minute drive so decided to pull in gas station and pop the hood. Now smoke/burning oil coming from back left quadrant of engine. No signs of overheating. No signs of coolant or water on the oil cap as far as I can tell. Haven't checked the radiator for emissions leak with one of those kits. Possible sound of bubbling somewhere under the hood.

My guess now is that there's a compression leak between cylinders due to a bad gasket. The car is old, over 200,000 miles and I don't have the loot to keep throwing at this thing. Started thinking back to how many times I've given money to a mechanic to not have a problem solved, and it's been more than a few.

Now I'm thinking the problem all along was the head gasket and it was never properly diagnosed (and possibly lead to the radiator problem). A different shop had said the timing cover was leaking, but was not of immediate importance. I add this in the interest of full disclosure.

I'm definitely not taking it back to the garage that changed the Valve Cover Gasket twice. And I'm not looking to throw much more into this. I am however considering getting some head gasket sealer as a last ditch effort to get at least a few thousand more miles out of this car. I've seen some stories of the stuff working miracles, but I've also seen how it doesn't work and gummed up the cooling system. I wouldn't want to do that to a brand new radiator. As far as I'm concerned the car is as good as dead and if the stop leak doesn't work I can sell the car for parts after the engine dies. New radiator, ball joints, sway bar link pins, battery etc - that's gotta be worth something right?

My questions are thus:

Which gasket sealer would you guys recommend if any?
Should I drain the radiator prior to administering the sealer even if the instructions say that's not necessary?
Are there other obvious possibilities I haven't considered yet?
Should I be ticked at the garage for not figuring this out?
Could they have caused the damage when pulling and replacing the radiator? The current issues started after the new radiator was installed


Any other suggestions or solutions greatly appreciated. I'm not too handy with the vehicles...always seems to take WAY more time than it's worth to me, although I've done brakes, some belts, the sway bar pins.

Thanks in advance and I hope I didn't make this too long of a post.

 

I would advise not to use the stop leak at all.

You need to verify that you are actually getting exhaust gases into your coolant. The kit with the solution that changes color when exhaust gases are in the coolant is a pretty definitive test.

When the engine is cold, you would also want to check the coolant level in the radiator.

You also need to figure out where the oil is leaking. Clean up the engine area as much as possible. Adding a dye to your oil can help locate the source of a leak. The spray of oil is likely due to it getting on your belts.