Over heats in minutes.

wardthomas

My Jeep Grand Cherokee Over heated on the high way the other day. The check gauges light came on. Pulling into a station I noticed coolant had leaked all over under the hood and was smoking off the engine. At first I thought it might been just a leak in the cap because I was able to retightened. Getting back on the high way it took about only a mile for the thermometer to reach max temperature. Here I pulled over and waited a few minutes before trying to start it again. it sputtered and waited another 20 or so minutes before it was on again. Driving it only a few miles to the closest town the meter reached max temp and then fell back down to no temperature reading. It got into a shop about an hour after this. They ran a block test and said their was exhaust backed up into the coolant. They're estimating a very large bill for this. $1,500-3,500 saying it could be a blown gasket or may need a new engine.
If there's any advice on how to move forward or if any ones run across this problem and found another solution I would love the input or experience.

Mr_Shiftright

If the shop did a test for combustion gases in the coolant and it came out positive, then that's about as conclusive an answer as you need, and there's no easy way out. At best you could have a bad head gasket.

They could do further testing to determine where the leak is, possibly by pressure-testing the system. A head gasket doesn't necessarily have to leak into the oil--it can leak only into the coolant.

If you don't know this garage very well you could go get a second opinion somewhere, or you could ask them to run the combustion gases test in front of you.

If the cylinder heads are off, they will have to be checked for warpage, because you ran the engine hot. It's also possible that your original problem wasn't the head gasket, but running the engine hot stressed it and it blew out.

In any event, with new head gaskets you should plan on a new thermostat and a radiator replacement or thorough cleaning out, and probably a new water pump as well.

Don't half-mast a head gasket job.

ggsamson

How were you able to resolve this issue?

becausecar

Buying a new engine I think is too much. Did you contact another dealer and have a 2nd opinion?.