Sucessful Northstar head gasket repair in a bottle

[twinbopilot]

Greetings to all my fellow Cadillac owners. I've been lurking on this forum for some time and as they say in the bittorrent world, its time to seed and not just leech! So I'm trying to give back a little something information-wise.

Seriously, I wanted to report a positive experience with a new product. I have absolutely no relationship to the manufacturer. Here goes:

I own a 1999 Deville Concours with 146,000 miles. It was overheating within 10-15 minutes of start-up (I'm in Texas and the temps right now are 100+). It would actually blow the coolant out the overflow tube on the expansion tank when it got hot enough. Also, I could smell exhaust gases in the coolant. I know there is a $50 test for this but I just left the cap off before it got too hot and every once in a while a bubble would come to the surface. By putting my nose in the opening and sniffing this bubble (be careful if you do this), it was obvious there were exhaust gases in my cooling system which means the dreaded head gasket leak was present.

Now I can tell you I am not a believer in miracle cures. I can already see the replies that will berate me for not "fixing it right". With respect, not everyone has $2500-$4000 to do it "correctly". I personally lost my job as a pilot with a major airline in December, so the belt is already very tight at my house!

Enter a product from K&W called K&W Nanotechnology Permanent Head Gasket and Block Repair. It costs $20 but offers twice your money back if not satisfied. Do they actually refund you $40? I have no idea as I didn't request a refund - read on:

The product claims to use "nanotechnology" which involves atom-sized particles. It does not have the coppery sludge in it that Barrs head gasket repair (and most of them) use. It is a pure liquid with some brown slimy stuff in it that looks like it came out of your nose (hows that for a technical description?).

I followed the instructions on the bottle to the letter. Be advised you will have to drain your cooling system and flush it with water prior to using this product. They recommend pulling the plugs and checking them for orange/red color from coolant then leaving this plug (or plugs) out during the treatment. I did this but all the plugs looked pretty much the same except 3 or 4 had a grey powdery build up on them which looked like oil if you go by the spark plug diagnosis pictures you can see many places online. So I just cleaned them and re-installed all 8 prior to the treatment.

The treatment procedure has you idle the car for 30 minutes with pure water and the K&W in it then drain the system for a 12 hour drying period. I woke up the next morning with great anticipation - would it work or was my time and money wasted?

I re-installed the thermostat (they have you remove it during the treatment) and refilled the system with Dex-Con and water. Now time to put it to the test. As I started the engine, the car displayed the outside temp. as 104 degrees. I had four one gallon jugs of water in the trunk that I could use to limp home with in case the coolant spewed out the overflow again.

Turns out they weren't needed! I first let the car idle in the driveway with the a/c on. Previously the car would overheat within 10-15 minutes even if it was just sitting idling (Yes the fans work fine). After 30 minutes, no leaks and no overheating, so it was time for a test drive. I began by driving around the local surface streets at 40-45 mph with a/c on of course. To my amazement, after 20 minutes the temp needle never wavered from the 12:00, or middle position. Hmmm, could this have actually worked? My next test was on the highway, driving 65-80 mph, for 30 minutes. Once again, no movement on the temp gauge! I said a small prayer of thanks and headed home with a BIG grin on my face.

Now its been a few days and lots of miles but the car still runs great with no overheating.

YMMV, but I highly recommend K&W Nanotechnology for N* engines with leaky head gaskets.

Please reply with any additional questions you may have as I'm certain I didn't cover everything here.

Thanks and enjoy those Cadillacs!

[CaddyshackCadillac]

jinx just kidding i hope you update this in a month and again in 3 to 6 months could be one hell of a find

[rlphbgby]

Originally Posted by CaddyshackCadillac

jinx just kidding i hope you update this in a month and again in 3 to 6 months could be one hell of a find

Yes I to would like you to do updates and anyone else who is welling to try this stuff out do updates. I believe You cant fix vehicles properly with anything from a can. If this is for real GREAT FIND

ps. thanks for becoming a seeder

[twinbopilot]

Ok, will do! Good bad or indifferent, I will report back what happens over time. Now on to replacing the front struts with a pair from Arnott. Not to redirect the thread but I'm getting a bad bottoming out on the right front when I hit a bump AND I'm getting the "SERV STABILTY SYS" message. I assume these to be related. But hey, I wasn't gonna worry about the suspension until I knew the engine would run without overheating!

[Ranger]

I hate to burst your bubble pilot, but we've been down this road before. I can assure you that the fix is temporary. What happens , as you nay know if you've been lurking long enough, is that the head bolt threads pull and no miracle in a bottle can fix that. Hope it buys you the time you need, but you might want to wait on those struts till you see the outcome unless you are going to fix the head gasket the correct way later.

Sorry to hear about your job. This industry sucks! 42 years and counting. I can remember when it was fun, secure and promising.

[MisterBlue]

I wish you all the luck in the world, but feel that your fix is only temporary. I experienced very similar results with the factory "Seal-Tabs". I used only one, and the problem went away for over a month. But, all it took was a couple of full-throttle takeoffs (with my newfound courage), and the problem reappeared. Each time, I used another tab, and it was fine until I got into it a few times. Then the tell tale "miss" for a few seconds at startup told me things were going sour. On the bright side, it did let me drive the car for another 6 months, until I could find a good replacement vehicle.

Full throttle exercising (the kind the recommended occasionally for Northstars) seriously increases pressure and strain in the combustion chamber, while tooling down the road at a steady 70-80 mph is about as strenuous for a car engine as you sitting in your easy chair and watching TV.

I'mm pullin' for 'ya, but I'm skeptical of anything more than temporary success.

[Ranger]

The factory sealant tabs where never intended to fix or prevent a head gasket failure.

[Playdrv4me]

Your headbolts are easing their way out of the block. It doesn't take rocket science to determine the larger the void the more coolant gets into the combustion process. Make that void large enough and nothing in a bottle is going to save it. It will buy you some time though.

[tateos]

No sense in telling you this fix won't work for long - everyone else already told you that. Thank you for the well written and detailed post. I wish you the best of luck, and do please keep us all updated.

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by twinbopilot

Greetings to all my fellow Cadillac owners. I've been lurking on this forum for some time and as they say in the bittorrent world, its time to seed and not just leech! So I'm trying to give back a little something information-wise.

Seriously, I wanted to report a positive experience with a new product. I have absolutely no relationship to the manufacturer. Here goes:

I own a 1999 Deville Concours with 146,000 miles. It was overheating within 10-15 minutes of start-up (I'm in Texas and the temps right now are 100+). It would actually blow the coolant out the overflow tube on the expansion tank when it got hot enough. Also, I could smell exhaust gases in the coolant. I know there is a $50 test for this but I just left the cap off before it got too hot and every once in a while a bubble would come to the surface. By putting my nose in the opening and sniffing this bubble (be careful if you do this), it was obvious there were exhaust gases in my cooling system which means the dreaded head gasket leak was present.

Now I can tell you I am not a believer in miracle cures. I can already see the replies that will berate me for not "fixing it right". With respect, not everyone has $2500-$4000 to do it "correctly". I personally lost my job as a pilot with a major airline in December, so the belt is already very tight at my house!

Enter a product from K&W called K&W Nanotechnology Permanent Head Gasket and Block Repair. It costs $20 but offers twice your money back if not satisfied. Do they actually refund you $40? I have no idea as I didn't request a refund - read on:

The product claims to use "nanotechnology" which involves atom-sized particles. It does not have the coppery sludge in it that Barrs head gasket repair (and most of them) use. It is a pure liquid with some brown slimy stuff in it that looks like it came out of your nose (hows that for a technical description?).

I followed the instructions on the bottle to the letter. Be advised you will have to drain your cooling system and flush it with water prior to using this product. They recommend pulling the plugs and checking them for orange/red color from coolant then leaving this plug (or plugs) out during the treatment. I did this but all the plugs looked pretty much the same except 3 or 4 had a grey powdery build up on them which looked like oil if you go by the spark plug diagnosis pictures you can see many places online. So I just cleaned them and re-installed all 8 prior to the treatment.

The treatment procedure has you idle the car for 30 minutes with pure water and the K&W in it then drain the system for a 12 hour drying period. I woke up the next morning with great anticipation - would it work or was my time and money wasted?

I re-installed the thermostat (they have you remove it during the treatment) and refilled the system with Dex-Con and water. Now time to put it to the test. As I started the engine, the car displayed the outside temp. as 104 degrees. I had four one gallon jugs of water in the trunk that I could use to limp home with in case the coolant spewed out the overflow again.

Turns out they weren't needed! I first let the car idle in the driveway with the a/c on. Previously the car would overheat within 10-15 minutes even if it was just sitting idling (Yes the fans work fine). After 30 minutes, no leaks and no overheating, so it was time for a test drive. I began by driving around the local surface streets at 40-45 mph with a/c on of course. To my amazement, after 20 minutes the temp needle never wavered from the 12:00, or middle position. Hmmm, could this have actually worked? My next test was on the highway, driving 65-80 mph, for 30 minutes. Once again, no movement on the temp gauge! I said a small prayer of thanks and headed home with a BIG grin on my face.

Now its been a few days and lots of miles but the car still runs great with no overheating.

YMMV, but I highly recommend K&W Nanotechnology for N* engines with leaky head gaskets.

Please reply with any additional questions you may have as I'm certain I didn't cover everything here.

Thanks and enjoy those Cadillacs!

You have struck gold. Thank you for this informative post. No doubt that countless numbers of N* owners will be very happy to hear the "cure in the bottle" does indeed exist. Wish you were around with this miracle cure crap a year and a half ago dammnit.

EDIT: My post is pure sarcasm. You are sent hear from K&W (thought they made root beer) or are a member of the K&W team that makes this bullshit "miracle in a bottle" crap.

[twinbopilot]

HA HA HA

I have no connection whatsoever with K&W. I'm just a plain old Cadillac owner. I did notice some guys on one of the other Cadillac forum sites are also having success with this product. Google if you are interested - I wouldn't want to link to the "competition".

I'm not saying this repair is going to last forever, but it made an un-drivable car drivable again. Even if it only lasts a few months, I'm satisfied. Gives me time to figure out my next move car-wise.

I will continue to post updates every so often. If anyone else tries it, let us know your results.

[STSS]

I just hope you inform the next owner...

[97EldoCoupe]

I haven't read this whole thread yet. But believe me, any fix in a bottle will cause a lot of headaches for the repair man that you will eventually be taking the car to. I spend a lot of time cleaning that crap out of the coolant passages /water jackets on a lot of cars. It sometimes does more harm than good.

I know that everyone does this to hopefully "buy time" and such. I never tried this on my Eldo when I first bought it and had coolant loss problems. Nor was I going to because I just don't believe you can fix things with "miracle solutions". Fix it once. Fix it right. End of problem. Enjoy your Cadillac.

The network of Northstar repair shops across North America is starting to form. A reasonably cost-effective, permanent solution is right around the corner. I already have 10+ shops interested and waiting to be put on the list, all have done the stud conversion at least once and have had great success.

I have a car in the shop from Chicago right now. So people love their Caddys enough to drive half a day and spend around 2 grand to keep them on the road. I'm really glad people still have this much pride in Cadillacs.

I may be opening another shop in Canada in the next few months that people in North Dakota and Minnesota will have easy access to.

But still, if it's your daily driver, and you depend on it, I understand. Best of luck to anyone who tries "Liquid Miracles". Some of the time it may work, for a while.

[STSS]

Originally Posted by 97EldoCoupe

Fix it once. Fix it right.

Fix it with STUDS!!!

[chris400]

I tried blue devil sealant in my 98 deville ,with 139000 miles on it, about a month ago and i drive 50 miles to work every day city and hwy and no overheating{197-205} and loss of coolant. so far ?