cracked head or head gasket?

[Flanderz]

Hey guys,
Finially got a new drivers seat, so no more bits of wood holding my seat up (my back is thanking me), anyway was lookin over the car and noticed that my radiator was about half full and my oil was at the bottom notch. These were filled up about 3 weeks ago. My old man came out and had a look and he reckons I have a cracked head as there is bubbles comming from the radiator when it is being run with cap off???. Also lots of brown gunk around the radiator cap and apparently my car had a small ammount of blue smoke comming from the exhaust when my dad watched me take off this morning, no smoke once it warms up a litle. Cant see any water leaks from the radiator, and only a very minor oil leak from the engine. Would this be a cracked head or gasket? what test should I get done to determine this? Compression test, or get the radiator water analysed, or is there anything else I can look at to determine what is wrong. Can't see any milky oil either. The car does seam to be running fine tho.

[heist]

yo dude, i have the same prob in my civic....help us out guys!

[Jomsy]

you need to have a leak down test done, cause bubbles mean nothing, usually your oil would look like a chocolate milk shake if you get water in it

also pressure test your cooling system to make sure its not leaking,

something quick you can do at home is to remove the spark plugs and see if one is clean, if one is clean and 3 are black then water is getting into that cylinder

[wkdteg]

im currently checkin if i have the same problem as i ran the car with a water leak (insert stupid look here). u can have oil mixin with water, or water mixing with oil if its a blown gasket, among other things my old man mentioned 2 me last night. if uve topped everythin up and half of it is down then theres a good indication that theres sum sort of leak. ide take it 2 get those tests done. those bubles dont mean much, its more of a concern if the water is splashing out, not bubbling.
cheers

[Flanderz]

cool, I'll be pullin my spark plugs tonight. Was only small bubbles but they are consistent, 1-2 ever few seconds.

[wkdteg]

let us know how u went.
i just fixed my water leak, n i think i may have escaped blowin the head gasket, although my alternator light doesnt witch off now? weird

[ACTI0NMAN-1]

make sure your oil isnt turning milky, thats a sure sign of a blown gasket.

[T-onedc2]

As for the small amount of blue smoke, I don't think it's anything to worry about. When the engine is on cold idle it'll run richer and can cause this. Please correct me if I'm wrong.:)

[wkdteg]

yeah the oil was normal, no serious exhaust smoke, and water was clean. took the car for a run couple hrs ago, n it seems 2 b goin aiight. its just the light... im not even sure wat its for

[Flanderz]

Ok i've had a freind of mine mechanic take a look at the water and oil, He thinks blown or leaking gasket mabey minor crack. No milky oil, and it looks like some oil sitting on top of the radiator. But I was lookin at it for a while and running the car with the cap off for a while to see if any more oil sould float to the top, nothin. Not one bit, so my THEORY (just a theory as im trying to think positive), is that it was just dirty water with a bit of corrosion floating to the top. Might do a radiator flush and see if I get any more deposits. It was a brown deposit but clumped together on top of the radiator cap, might try and take a pic for someone to have a look at.

[wynode]

Could be just rust.

You can also do a test to see if there is c02 in your coolant.