I brought my car to a shop because I get no heat. The mechanic diagnosed my car as having a blown gasket head because there were hydrocarbons in my coolant. The repair cost was too high, so a I figured I'd just run the car until it broke on me. A month later I see it overheating on the way to work and a month after that it completely powers down (electrically) while I'm driving and I see a lot of white smoke (coolant was all over the engine). After it's had time to cool down I can start it up just fine. I pour coolant in and it comes right back out the bottom of the water pump.Could a bad water pump have been the reason for the hydrocarbons and no heat in the first place? Could it have caused the appearance of hydrocarbons in my coolant? If the head gasket is blown and this is just a symptom, is it cost effective to replace the water pump or will it just break on me again in a short time?
I am reminded of a monkey playing with a revolver.... Buy a bicycle. Make sure it does not have any kind of cooling system. Never post here again.
Blown head gasket means white smoke out the tail pipe. To find out if the water pump is working, open up the radiator cap and look for moving water. If your car does not have a radiator cap then feel the hoses going to the radiator, if you feel rushing water then your water pump is working.
A bad water pump can not put hydrocarbons into the cooling system. I had a blown head gasket on my car and it had hydrocarbons in the cooling system.
leaky water pump would cause overheating. *overheating* would cause a chamber gasket sealing issue. so it's not the pump that caused the coolant to fail the contamination test. it's collateral damage to chamber sealing caused by the overheat condition as a result of a bad water pump. the real Q here is the type of engine. we've no idea what that is or the yr/make/model of the platform. some engines have oil and coolant passages on the intake manifold. even if those passages are blind. so in the end, it could be an intake or head gasket that took a hit after the overheat condition. -------- cost effective to fix? couldn't tell ya. that would be determinded by the condition/value of the platform, and what all took collateral damage and cost of what needs to be done. since there's no vehicle or engine info, that can only be determined by you and a diagnostic tech of your choosing.
The water pump is independent of the hydrocarbons in the coolant. Your water pump went bad. You have a blown head gasket. You could replace the water pump and run it. You could try some head gasket sealant in the coolant. It may not work but it only costs $20-$30 and may fix it up. The water pump may have been leaking for a while and caused the coolant level to get low so that the engine over heated and warped the head.
