how to find out if my heads cracked

[J.T VL LOVE]

hey guys i have the net back now in the last week or so my mrs has been driving my VL http://forums.justcommodores.com.au/...milies/mad.gif witch SHITS me up the wall big time she cant understand how to drive it and that its not a f@$kn 2010 kia rio and now that i have my beast back its running like a bag of shit and i just had a big service done on it as u few of use said to do in the last thread and i think ive well shes done the head wats the best way to find out for sure any and all help will go along way cheers

[Rusty]

Is it leaking oil/coolant or blowing smoke or anything? Cracked head should leak some oil at least. Cracked gasket could be smoke, boiling coolant, milky crap in radiator, dodgy compression etc.

If it just had a big service and showing none of the above signs it may be as simple as a dodgy lead or plug.

[87RB30VL]

Is there a way to compression test it, and if there's loss of pressure, cracked head? I dunno if there's a 100% perfect single way to check without pulling it and getting it sussed out from every angle

[aussie_macca]

milky crap in your oil cap, getting hot, lots of pressure in radiator hoses, if you take the radiator cap off when its cold then start it and it bubbles, if its chewing through water...............when my head gasket went the only symptom was warming up, was driving fine and my temp gauge rached 2/3rds so i checked my coolant (which i checked before i left as it was a long drive) and it was near empty, took off me oil cap and it was FULL of the milky crap of death.....you woulnt know if its actually 'cracked' until you get it off then take it to get pressure and vac tested (at least thats what i did as a safe bet)

[J.T VL LOVE]

HEY guys over the weekend i have checked my pulgs and leads and all good i have no milky crap at all but im going through a bit of water and its a oily watery crap cumin out of my exhaust and a white smoke and it runs as if its going to stall when at low revs also my old man said to get a monoxcide test at a radiator joint sorry for shit spelling im doing this of my phn atm and am rushing hahah

[Pub247]

more than likely you would have blown a head gasket if theres no sign of a cracked head

[J.T VL LOVE]

CHEERS mate how do i go about fixing that and what $buks$ would i be looking at to fix this problem

[aussie_macca]

most mechanics places round ballarat would probably charge 2-300+ just to get your head off (those are the rough numbers i got from a few places) and everyone on here said i was better off doing it myself.....after quite a bit of swearing and some mangled knuckles and help from a bloke on here (nackerz) it was up and running pretty quick and havent had an issue since. ended up costing me an arm and a leg but that wasnt just for gaskets i needed a new timing light and quality torque wrench and a puller for the water pump plus it was like $125 a bottle for the oil i was using and more then that for my leads and about the same for the plugs and more again for head bolts. if its an n/a you could get it all done muuuuch cheaper i only went nuts on parts because i didnt want to risk cheap crap on a 5000km old built motor.

[J.T VL LOVE]

cheers mate that really handy shit to no did u say u were from ballarat

[aussie_macca]

yeah mate im only about 15-20min from ballarat

[J.T VL LOVE]

dose ur vl get around ballarat much