Any input on Blue Devil Head Gasket Sealer ?

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Hi.

My new white 5 speed 1988 Porsche 924S just arrived via tow truck down here to So. Florida. OD had 75,455 miles on it and receipts show it had a new engine put in at the 60,000 mile range.

All the good work was done by the good owner which was about 3 owners prior to last. I got it from a young kid who loved it until the lower radiator hose cut open, overheated on his way home and blew the head gasket. Seems the person he bought it from took it to a shop that did not install the hose properly and the minimal clearance to the fan it would have normally was not respected.

Anyway this is hard to find car and it is otherwise well maintained and looks pretty cool.
I have used Red Devil AC stop leak 2 times and it did seal up and hold the charges.

A blown head gasket is alot more complicated than a hole in a condensor but I did want to first try the Blue Devil Head Gasket Sealer before I decide whether to have the work done mechanically, the old fashioned way. This car in best shape is maybe a $5,000 car, so I hope I get lucky that the BD works....

Any input is greatly appreciated.
The plan would be to 1) drain the milky engine oil, remove the thermostat, flush the radiator , refill with new oil, fill the radiator and pour in the Head Gasket Sealer....( per directions) then you let the car idle for 50 minutes and hope it does not leak any more than 1Qt. of coolant. If not , drain the oil again and new filter and supposed to be a permanent repair.

Any suggestions on cleaning out the sludge, on this specific brand head gasket sealer or experience with it, or other advice is greatly appreciated...

Thanks, Austin

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It's (I beleive) sodium silicate (I've been buying head gasket sealers to get the silicates for other uses).

This is the same stuff that they used to disable cars in the cash for clunkers programme.

If your gasket is really bad, there's a chance (maybe small) that the silicates will end up oil side and turn to glass. Turning to glass is what they are supposed to do at the leak site.
 
OK. I am learning. I am hoping that this may at least seal so the car can run, and if it does run I can see it it runs smoothly or not.

If it is not than I know I need to have it opened up and looked at.
If it runs OK I will still probably have the head gasket replaced at some point in the not to distant future.

....
 
Will it seal? There's a chance.

Will it stay that way? Very unlikely.

I second doing it the right way.

Real question is, how's your cooling system going to like liquefied glass running around in it? And if that garbage pumps out of your cooling system into your crankcase? Come on.
 
Open it up and do it right to begin with. You're going to have more trouble hassling with getting that junk out later on.

It is doubtful that you'll get it running smoothly with that stuff in there, if the damage is anything but the tiniest failure.
 
I have to agree with fixing it the right way in this case. Any kind of "Miracle in a can" products are basically for the kind of cars that I drive - old beaters that aren't worth a high repair bill.
 
Agreed! Products like this "Blue Devil" and even the more expensive products are "hit or miss"! And I believe that the "Blue Devil" is a more expensive product. If this vehicle is a keeper or you are selling the car and want to keep a good reputation...fix it right!
 
Overheating could have warped or cracked the head, the only way to know is to fix it correctly.

Blue Devil and other head gasket sealers are for shady used car dealers or the like.

Its a band aid for a wound that requires surgery.
 
LS swap it. Seriously. Get the junk Porsche motor out of there and put an LS in it. It'll be 10x more powerful, 10x more reliable, get better fuel mileage, it won't be as likely to burn the car to the ground, and it'll be worth significantly more if done well.
 
I tried Blue Devil. It clogged my cooling system, requiring some manual cleaning.

Just swap the engine with something else.
 
Originally Posted By: michaelluscher
I wouldn't.

Do it right, or don't bother.


I am in this camp. I recommend and use Barrs stop leak for water leaks, but nothing IMO will reliably seal a head gasket leak where water is getting into the oil or combustion chamber.
 
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a buddy of mine used Blue Devil head gasket sealer and he swears his water pump seized from it.
If I really had to use something, I'd use the Iron Tite Ceramic motor sealer.
 
If the leak is between coolant and oil passages, there is a chance. If the leak involves seeping compression, no way. If the engine is not firing, there is still over 100PSI of pressure in a combustion chamber as the engine spins. If you test your coolant for CO and it is present, Blue Devil will never work.
 
The problem is that these products don't really work all that well, and the proper "simple" conventional repair is now complicated by the addition of cement like material in all sorts of small passageways.

We tried this stuff in a 4 cylinder road race car with a leaking head gasket. Enough of the material made it into the oil and filled the crankshaft and block oil passages with cement. The result was a very expensive overhaul, instead of a simple head gasket replacement.
 
Originally Posted By: michaelluscher
I wouldn't.

Do it right, or don't bother.



Agreed.

Op.
You've already tried it twice and both times it failed so seriously consider your options here.
You can keep pouring stuff in the rad hoping to save a buck,until all those silicates impede water flow and rad cooling ability which will end up leaving you stranded and having to replace parts.
How easy is it to find parts for this car and once you factor in parts replacement,engine damage and tow truck is it cheaper to just replace the gasket now,or at some point in the future be broken down in the middle of nowhere and not having the choice on fixing it.
Do the math. Consider the future aggravation and cost vs cost now to fix properly and think hard about whether you really want that voice in the back of your mind telling you today's the day it's going to fail.
Or would you like to enjoy the vehicle you bought.
If the latter sounds better then fix the gasket now.
 
Is it better to let the car sit in the back yard and rot as a "someday I'm gonna fix her up". That's what happens. People never get around to repairing these things. It'll get towed off in 10 years as scrap.
 
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