Engine Tests, What Sorts Are There?

[mad082]

basically i am selling my car and a guy came and had a look and was worried about a bit of oil on the block (comes from leaking rocker cover gasket, same as what skylines suffer from) and he wants to do some tests on it to make sure the head gasket isn't gone. now i know you can do a pressure test, and a compression test (but neither will tell you if the head is leaking oil due to the head gasket). i explained that to him but he said that his mate has a few testers that don't require removing anything.

what could they be?

i was talking to my mate who is a mechanic and the only thing he could think of a TK test, but again that won't tell if the headgasket is the cause of the oil leak. an oil pressure test probably won't show it either if it is a tiny little leak (but as i said it's the rocker cover gasket leaking and i told the guy that). the only thing we could think of is that this guys mate has a crystal ball, or is a psychic.

so any ideas on what this guy is on about?

[vinnie32GTS4]

maybe a leak down test???

[mad082]

yeah we also thought of that

[TiTAN]

the only ones that wouldn't really require anything being removed would be compression and leak down afaik.

or he is trying to blow something minor out of proportion to try and hammer the price down.

Edited September 30, 2008 by TiTAN

[mad082]

both compression and leak down require getting to all cylinders, which means removing the manifold to get to the rear 3 cylinders in this case. which i told him i wasn't keen on doing because it takes a few hours to remove and install the manifold, and if the gasket gets damaged i have to get a new one of them also.

and none of them are going to able to really tell you if the head gasket is causing the oil on the side of the block (which is why this kid - he's only about 19, wants to do the tests). he just really doesn't seem to know what he is on about. and is getting advice from his mates who also don't seem to know too much.

as for trying to get the price lower, that isn't going to happen. and he has told me that many times he is keen, so why should i lower the price? if he didn't think the price was reasonable he wouldn't be saying that he is keen to get the car in every second message.

[The Dan]

There are no other tests he can do other than the ones mentioned above. The oil won't be coming from the head gasket. Change the RC gaskets and clean the oil down. Drive it for a couple of days and see if the oil re-appears.

I think he maybe made a comment without thinking about it and is now trying to backpeddle via bullshit. Call his bluff, tell him you know he is full of shit, there is no test that can tell you where the oil is coming from.

Fix the highest leak...clean down...and re-check.

[SSHatch]

Probably just looking for an excuse to take the car and drive it without you around so he can see what it "really" goes like .

Sounds like crap and ya probably should tell him so.

[mad082]

the rocker cover gaskets were replaced before i bought the car (to pass the roadworthy) but the new ones only stopped the leak for about 2 months.

oddly enough he didn't show up last night. on monday night i explained to him that neither a compression test nor a pressure test would show the leak and explained why, and i said i wasn't going to let him do a compression test due to the work involved removing the manifold. and that's when he said his mate had these other testers that didn't involve removing anything, to which i replied that i was interested to see what the testers were.

so i think he was going to try and do a pressure test, etc and tell me that the results were bad and when he found out i know what i'm doing he has had second thoughts.