Blown HG, or am I paranoid?

wnelax04sr5

wnelax04sr5

New member
I've searched and searched and come up with nothing similar to the symptoms I've been experiencing for about one week now.

2004 1gr-fe

I know, you are already thinking of course the HG is blown its an 04 v6, but I have not had a check engine light for the typical P0306 cylinder 6 misfire. Its happened on warm starts and one cold start, it'll crank fine, fire up, and run rough for about 10 seconds at most. if I tap the throttle it goes away and doesn't come back. no smoke, no coolant loss, and i don't see any residue around the heads.

This may be unrelated, but I have also heard what sounds identical to running water at startup for about 5 seconds, not sure what that is, haven't heard it before.

So am I paranoid, or is it on the way out? I have no check engine lights, it doesn't happen every time, and theres no discernible coolant loss. It hasn't overheated and has not been running hot either.

Any ideas? :help:
 
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Plug or coil. That seems to be where most start and end at the head gasket.

Smell the exhaust at cold startup. Will smell sweet if you are burning coolant.
 
That's going to be a bad head gasket, unfortunately.

The only symptom mine ever showed was the running water sound on cold starts. I never had a rough idle or anything like that. That sound comes from a gas pocket in your closed loop cooling system. It's likely that gas is from exhaust seeping through a compromised head gasket.

Sorry man.
 
Qlaloo said:
I'm having the same issue as you sadly :(
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That's not a good sign, but the good news is that you may have quite a bit of time before it gets bad enough that you have to take action. Mine sounded like a waterfall for a full year before I finally figured out what it was and did something about it. During that year it ran fine.
 
Pretty sure I figured out today I have a bad headgasket. Had the bubbling coolant noise for a few months now, but never lost a significant amount of coolant or misfire or check engine light. Only recently did it start overheating, and used a block tester that found exhaust gas in the coolant. I would just wait and see what happens. Mine has run fine since the bubbling noise, and even now feels for the most part fine. Have had occasional rough starts though
 
I feel for you guys, but yes, it sounds like the OP is have EARLY symptoms, meaning he has less of a chance of warping the heads (over heating) before it starts to fire out codes. At least he knows what is happening. Although, it's probably not a bad idea to do a pressure test to be sure.

Good luck guys!
 
fdbyrne said:
That's going to be a bad head gasket, unfortunately.

The only symptom mine ever showed was the running water sound on cold starts. I never had a rough idle or anything like that. That sound comes from a gas pocket in your closed loop cooling system. It's likely that gas is from exhaust seeping through a compromised head gasket.

Sorry man.
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thats what i was thinking.... used it hard today and had no issues, only 1 of 6 startups ran rough

jrm said:
using a code reader. that might be the next step
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no codes to pull unfortunately
 
fdbyrne said:
That's not a good sign, but the good news is that you may have quite a bit of time before it gets bad enough that you have to take action. Mine sounded like a waterfall for a full year before I finally figured out what it was and did something about it. During that year it ran fine.
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did you ever have rough startups in that year? I'm wondering how long i can run it like this
 
fdbyrne said:
No. It ran fine. Never a rough idle or anything. It was only a matter of time though, which is why I went ahead and fixed it.
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That's great on how you and others, decide to fix them. I have a friend who tells me that for the price of doing the repair, it would be better to get another motor from a yard. I haven't priced them out, but I'm sure they are expensive. Having that said, I'm sure they are difficult to come by as our rigs are finicky as to the motor has to be an exact match. Anyway, If/when my HG goes, I do plan on getting it repaired as I know the rest of the motor is fine, where as a junkyard motor you NEVER know.

If money was not an issue, I would totally get a new/reman 1GRFE.
 
I wish there was a good JDM option for the 4.0 like there was for the 3.4 and others. I've not found anything so I'm guessing they don't run them in Japan.
 
Apologies for my ignorance but what is the point of dropping in another used engine? Couldn't the HG's just go bad int hat one as well? Is it really less labor then just doing a proper HG job?

Have you tried swapping the coil to see if the misfire moves or stays at #6?

fwiw, I had the #6 misfire. Changed the plugs (they were old, wrong brand, and due anyway). Still had the misfire. Swapped the coil to a different spot and the misfire followed it. :guitar3: Put in a new coil and am now a-ok. Never any other signs of a HG failure but I was paranoid because, so often on this forum, that #6 misfire is a bad omen. (2005 V6 Sport, 168k miles)

Maybe you will be lucky like me?
 
Sporin said:
Apologies for my ignorance but what is the point of dropping in another used engine? Couldn't the HG's just go bad int hat one as well? Is it really less labor then just doing a proper HG job?

Have you tried swapping the coil to see if the misfire moves or stays at #6?

fwiw, I had the #6 misfire. Changed the plugs (they were old, wrong brand, and due anyway). Still had the misfire. Swapped the coil to a different spot and the misfire followed it. :guitar3: Put in a new coil and am now a-ok. Never any other signs of a HG failure but I was paranoid because, so often on this forum, that #6 misfire is a bad omen. (2005 V6 Sport, 168k miles)

Maybe you will be lucky like me?
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Im currently at this dilemma. I had my motor replaced a few years ago with a used engine after throwing a rod. And guess what, not 40,000 miles and a couple years later I have a bad headgasket. Worried that almost any motor you can get will have headgasket issues
 
I've had the water-running-behind-the-dash noise on startup now for almost 2 years. In that time, there have been no major symptoms beyond the noise. I have not had it run rough or overheat, no codes, exhaust smells fine, etc.

I have replaced the radiator and water pump, both due to small leaks. Once in a while I notice the coolant in the reservoir gets a little low, but nothing alarming (like an inch drop over the course of a few months).

With 210k on the odo, I'm not too motivated to proactively repair it, I'll keep driving it and wait for it to pop.
 
sonerick said:
I've had the water-running-behind-the-dash noise on startup now for almost 2 years. In that time, there have been no major symptoms beyond the noise. I have not had it run rough or overheat, no codes, exhaust smells fine, etc.

I have replaced the radiator and water pump, both due to small leaks. Once in a while I notice the coolant in the reservoir gets a little low, but nothing alarming (like an inch drop over the course of a few months).

With 210k on the odo, I'm not too motivated to proactively repair it, I'll keep driving it and wait for it to pop.
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Have you ever tried a bleed funnel? I found my engine was a bit tricky to get the air out of a coolant change, at least more so than any other engine I've done in the past.

I found it best to purge the air after the thermostat opens, closes a bit, and re-opens at full operating temp. If not, I didn't get all the trapped air out. IIRC that's actually in the Honda FSM, the fans need to run twice at full temp, as that's when the t-stat is fully open. That tends to ensure all the air is purged.

When I did mine I found it wicked heat too quickly with the heater blasting on full and pulling heat from the motor (I guess that's a good thing in a way, as it is indicative of a good and efficient cooling system), so even on a hot day, around 90*F ambient, I had to block the front on the radiator with a towel to get it warm enough to do the job to my satisfaction.

Just a thought...
 
JEL said:
Have you ever tried a bleed funnel? I found my engine was a bit tricky to get the air out of a coolant change, at least more so than any other engine I've done in the past.

I found it best to purge the air after the thermostat opens, closes a bit, and re-opens at full operating temp. If not, I didn't get all the trapped air out. IIRC that's actually in the Honda FSM, the fans need to run twice at full temp, as that's when the t-stat is fully open. That tends to ensure all the air is purged.

When I did mine I found it wicked heat too quickly with the heater blasting on full and pulling heat from the motor (I guess that's a good thing in a way, as it is indicative of a good and efficient cooling system), so even on a hot day, around 90*F ambient, I had to block the front on the radiator with a towel to get it warm enough to do the job to my satisfaction.

Just a thought...
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I haven't tried a bleed funnel. I have on a couple of occasions parked on a steep incline (front of the car high) and let the heat run full blast for a while.

I don't think the water-running-behind-the-dash noise coincided with any of the cooling system work I've done, but I'll try burping it again this weekend and see what happens.
 
slight bump, i did a combustion leak test with this
Amazon.com: UVIEW 560000 Combustion Leak Tester: Automotive

it confirmed my fears, and confirmed that i need a head gasket. After some consideration i think I'm going to attempt the fix myself. I have good support from a friend who is a mechanic and confidence i can handle the task. Im going to limp it along for a month or so more, get my tax return, and compile the parts needed all while studying the FSM to make absolute sure I know what I'm doing.
 
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