2000 N* Head Gasket probability

Ranger you're unlike many car owners- you maintain your car religiously. You won't allow Dex to sit in there & get corrosive.

One of these days I'll post pics of some HGs in my collection. From seeing 65+ Northstars I've concluded:

engines that have/had green coolant had the best HGs- no corrosion, just the normal depressions and raised areas around the cylinders (open coolant jackets)
engines that have Dex have HGs that are rusted to sh*t around the coolant jackets
some HGs that had Dex aren't as bad as others. Some are really rusted. I think this varies according to how often the coolant has been changed

I tore an engine down about a month ago, from a '93 Allante. Original HGs, green coolant from the factory, best HGs I've ever seen. The engine had been swapped due to oil consumption. None of the aluminum surfaces had corrosion or pitting. Some engines that have had dex have had very bad pitting, especially on the water crossover & ports on the block/heads. I've seen a few other N*s that were run on green coolant and the HGs were consistently in better condition.

Yeah, that's my plan too. I had my coolant changed after I bought the car last August - wanted to know the last time it was done, and I wanted to have it run with new coolant for a while and get it tested to combustion byproducts. Thankfully the test came back negative after two hours of hard driving. However, I had our local Cadillac dealership do it, and they used Dex. I'm going to let it run this summer with the Dex, and if I decide to store it again this winter I'll change it to the green stuff beforehand. Or, if I end up calling Jake for a pre-emptive HG job, then it'll happen at that time.

As to the OP, every car is a gamble. Every gamble is different. On N* cars, either the DexCool engine coolant or the HGs/block happen to be a weakness, and every now and then they blow. On a long enough timeline, every factory HGs time will run out. Do what I did - start saving up money. I don't even really have a coordinated way of doing it - I popped $600 in a separate account to start 'er off (actually about three days before I purchased the car - I came here and did my homework first) and just tossed in $5, $10, $20, and $50 as the mood struck me. I can afford the HG job now, but I also have a few other things I'm eyeing first (like this, and this, and this, and this). However, I'm going to make sure that whatever I buy, I keep a hard floor of money in my account for when/if the day arrives.

If any member has it I'd like more info on the Dex chemical composition as it relates to "becoming corrosive". Certainly there is a correlation between a coolant's lifespan inside the system and its ability to continue providing the same protection - but at what point does it begin eating away at the gaskets? Is there a supposed curve? Other factors to coolant longevity would include unnecessary opening of the system allowing contaminants to be introduced which is why on the very rare occasion I take my vehicle to a "we service any make / model" type of oil change / tire shop I make it a point to see they do not top off any of my fluids with whatever they may have in the bay at the time. I changed (drain, fill) my coolant this past weekend and the purged coolant mirrored the new coolant - I filled two glasses side-by-side and they looked exactly the same - very clean to the point I was tempted to add ice and drink the stuff. I'm guessing that most of the coolant breakdown can't be identified visually but "dirty" coolant or excessive crap around the cap would be an early indicator of a problem. Either way I'm changing the coolant every year as part of spring maintenance - I spent around $13 at Wally for the concentrated Dex and a gallon of deionized water. It's one of the cheapest PMs you can do for the car. :thumbsup: