At the end of my thread on the car for sale with blown head gasket, was an ad for Barrs stop leak that promises to plug head gasket leaks via the cooling system. How about Blue Devil? Has anyone tried these?
JB

 

I tried on my Ford Explorer, a week later realized it was a cracked head not just the gasket.

 

temporary fix at best; wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.. will just gunk up the inside of your engine, no thanks.

 

I dont think your going to find anyone on this forum to support doing this. But, on a Chevy Lumina I once owned I used Thermagasket and it bought me 6 months. Worked well during that time.

 

depending what part of the gasket is gone and how bad its blown the blue devil works well but its not a replacement for a head gasket it could work for 100,000 miles could work for 10 miles i used it on a m3 worked for several months and it got the hell beat out of it and it worked upintill it got sold but i would try it and get rid of the car or drive it to where u need to

 

Can't find the post recommending Bars Head Gasket Fix (or was it the other Bars product for head gaskets?) ...

I bought the former.

Since the Volvo does not have a radiator cap I put it into the overflow tank. Its very thick, and it took a long time to get sucked into the engine. I should have mixed it with radiator fluid first.

The instructions say to remove the top radiator hose and pour it into the hose if you don't have a radiator cap, but that would have been a whole job on its own.

Its been some weeks; I should clean off the back of the engine and see if it has stopped.

 

I was told that K&W Block Seal was the absolute best product on the market for this (and that most of their products are superior). I tried it, exactly as per the instructions, and poured it into the top radiator hose to get it right into the system. It slowed the head gasket leak we were having to about half of what it was (for about a week or two), then it returned just as bad as it had been. I have since replaced the head gasket myself, and am in the process of writing a tutorial for it - using the pictures and notes I took. Seeing where the head gasket is, what it does, and the tolerances it has to maintain, I don't see how anything can substitute for actually replacing it. Now that I know how to replace a head gasket (and that it's not as impossible as it sounds), a whole new market is opened up to me when car shopping in the future. I say this because if a vehicle needing a head gasket is being sold, it is usually marked waaaay down from what it would be worth otherwise. You just have to verify why it went bad and address if there are any other existing problems. I vote for replacing the gasket (if it was mine).

Tracy