Head Gasket Replacement

Question

Alright, so my car starting yesterday gave off this weird smell and the meter that tells you hot the engine shot from quarter mark to the half mark. As soon as I got on the highway the engine cooled back down until I got off the highway where it shot abck to the halfway mark. I left my car for about 5 hours. I went back to drive it and this time the meter stayed at the quarter mark but the same smell came. This smell both times only lasted for about 2 minutes. Now I drove my car about 3 miles to the car shop and back from the car shop. Both times no smell and no overheating. The guys at the car shop told me that they think my head gasket was blown and needed to be replaced which is a 900 dollar cost! They are going to do a test on it tomorrow to make sure. I just wanted to know if anyone had any input to what was going on and if they were just overexaggerating the problem. Thanks

Answer 1

You'd get a lot better answers, and a lot more of them, if we knew what kind of vehicle it was. Cylinder head gaskets are pretty common on some. But checking the Thermostat operation would be the first thing to do on pretty much any cooling system diagnosis. Since they haven't had a chance to properly diagnose it yet, they probably gave a worst case scenario because they're tired of being pressured. People who don't know anything about cars always seem to think we have a crystal ball or something.

Answer 2

You could test it yourself pull the oil dipstick if theirs water or a milky looking stuff on it then yes I would suspect head gasket or cracked head, even more expensive. But with a cracked head or blown head gasket the car temp would not drop getting on the highway and with water getting in where the spark pugs are the car would not run.  

Answer 3

When my car acted like that it turned out to be the thermostat.  Head gasket failure is not as common.  Make sure they check your thermostat before spending that much money.