Blown head gasket?

Hi All,

Got engine stalled earlier today w/o any obvious reasons (no revving up, no braking - just started on green light and was turning right), followed by a cloud of white smoke and a smell of engine coolant (I think) while I was still in the car. In a couple of minutes I was able to start the engine and drive home w/o any anomalies over the next 5-10min. Visual inspection under the bonnet didn't reveal any obvious issues. How likely is that I got head gasket blown? Had brief engine overheating twice over the last 2 years, both times because of the coolant loss through a leaky radiator, hence suspecting head gasket damage dating back then.

No MIL light came on on this occasion although I recall occasional (rare) instances of rpm instability that I could never explain.

***uming it's blown head gasket indeed will K-Seal help at all?

If the engine was overheated in the past there are big chanses to head distorsion and head gasket faliure.

As first check your coolant level and check for any leaks.
After that take out all 4 spark plugs and check the colours of them.
The spark plugs in the center should be coloured in brown colour...this is a sign of good combustion.
If you found one of them "cleaner " or " whiter " you will able to detect in which cylinder is the leak if any

Jan Accord said:

If the engine was overheated in the past there are big chanses to head distorsion and head gasket faliure.

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Thanks for your reply: will check the plugs over the next couple of days and report back. Btw under engine overheating I meant coolant temp arrow reaching the top of the scale briefly, at which point I'd shut the engine and wait for it to cool down before driving further to the nearest source of water.

When you loose some coolant the temp. sensor can reed properly anymore so when you turned off the engine, the part which the coolant didn't reach usualy is is a lot hotter than it apears on the instrument.
This part is in most cases is cylinder head