Blown Headgasket symptoms?

Hi, I think my car may have a blown head gasket. Just wondering what the signs of a blown head gasket are and how much would it cost to get it fixed?

Oh and sorry if this has already been asked, if it has can you please point me in the right direction?

[Age182]

it would run and idle ruff low water level and coolant marks down the left and rights sides of the block.
cost dunno im an apprentice mech i done it myself.
all so take out ya spark plugs and wind the motor over see if water shoots out

[Brent-EA Ghia]

Symptoms:
loss of coolant,
milky oil,
rough idle-missing on accell,
steam out exhaust,
rusty spark plug (electrode end)

or if its only external it could have stains down the block from the head gasket/

If I take off the rocker cover will that tell me anymore about it or is it a waste of time?

Ill check all this tomorrow, thanks guys

[Age182]

yea there the rocker cover will be white on the inside (milky oil) but its not always the case try the other things first

[saudia_man]

it depends which part of the gasket breaks. If it's a breakage and causes water to shoot inside the engine, then you will have rough idle, and rusty spark plugs, etc, but if it's a external leak, you will get water down the side of the block, and smell coolant in the engine bay when you open the bonet.

If the water passage leaks into the oil passage, then you will get milky oil.

Either way, you're gunna lose coolant, so keep and eye on the level. ive been losing coolant for a while now, but i cant figure out where its going or leaking from.

[Walkinshaw]

Marks like that on the block would indicate a blown gasket or snapped head bolt.

[5speedeb]

on price depends where u go could be from $500 to $1500 if it needs to be done use a n au gasket

[BuuBox]

Or follow the totorial on the website, spend maybe $200 at the most (worst case senario... $35 sounds better), and have something to do for the weekend.

It's not hard, just a little time consuming If you have some mechanical ability, you should be able to get it sorted.

[gozza]

when mine died i took it too ford
labour and recon of head/fitting gasket cost me around 1100

I think I may have escaped a blown head gasket. The sparkies were jet black, there was a bit of oil on the thread and a very tiny amount on the electrode but that could have got there when I took it out. Would that make a car run really rough? And use a fair bit of petrol?

Ok, so its not a blown gasket but theres a few other problems with it. I changed the sparkies today, running heaps better.

Its blowing alot of black smoke and sometimes (usually after coming down a hill and onto a flat surface) I go to put the throttle on and it does nothing, I have to pull over to the side of the road and put the throttle on about 1500rpm and wait for it to kick in.

[Hardtopxb]

sounds like induction to me