Had another week go by, no noticeable loss in coolant and no overheating. Let is sit on Sunday w/o starting and when I went to start it up to drive to work today it sounded like a tank. Took it to the garage later this afternoon (did not drive to work in it) and he's pretty sure it's a head gasket. I'm going to a mechanic at home who I feel more confident in, going to have him take it apart and replace the gasket. Is there a certain procedure or series of tests I need to make sure occur? In reading a lot of the other posts it sounds like they expose the gasket, replace that and then test the heads? I'm handy, but not with cars - especially when it's my only way to get to and from work. I want to make sure they check out everything that could be wrong at one time to try and minimize future work. Any suggestions? Thanks again.

 

yes... replace the water pump while there at it... its coming off anyways... im pretty sure the 4.0 has a timing chain but if its got a timing belt go ahead and change it... they will replace every gasket like intake and exhaust and valve... all the way down to the head gasket... have them go ahead and drain and change the oil and flushthe radiator... i say this because if there mixed up... u want them outta there... and thats the only way to be sure... if its been awhile on plugs then wouldnt be anything to do them also... while the heads out... distributors off so if u havent changed the cap and button... may as well go ahead and do them and wires too... some of this is overkill but you may as well do a tune up also that way your all set for awhile... things that are a must (oil change, radiator flush, gaskets, water pump, timing belt if it has one) the rest is normal tune up stuff...