Blown Head Gasket Between Cylinders
 

My mechanic says 2008 2.2 HHR has a blown head gasket between cylinders, nothing in the antifreeze or oil or exhaust.
Has anyone used a head gasket sealer in a bottle? Do they work? Engine has 58,000 miles. thanks bill

Don't waste your time and money.
What evidence of a blown gasket? Water disappearing, water in oil, water in exhaust?
I am guessing the mechanic can't figure out a P030X code?

Your bio says you have a 1996 Chevy S10. Is that the vehicle you're asking about ?

FYI. This site is for the Chevy HHR. 2006-2011

OK. What year, model and engine size ?

Are there two holes next to each other with low compression? You can blow a head gasket without getting any oil or water. The gasket will fail right at the narrow part between the two cylinders.

Head gasket sealer in a bottle, waste of time and money, the head gasket for the Ecotec 4 cylinder in the HHR isn’t all that hard to replace. There are no short cuts !

Some reading, with pictures!

http://www.ddmworks.com/assets/image...uild%20Kit.pdf

Prolly the mechanic did a leak-down test and found air moving between two cylinders.

Leak repairs in a bottle do more harm than good. Snake oil.

But pouring in something to fix a head gasket strikes me as absurd. Where do you pour it to get it to the leak you know little about? Into the coolant? The oil? The fuel?

Yeah, yeah, I know; it goes in the coolant, where the only thing it can possible do is keep coolant in the cooling system and off the ground. Even if it magically went only were needed without wrecking havoc with the rest of the engine, how could it possibly withstand combustion chamber pressures, or even oil pressure?

Your money would be better spent on betting 0 at the roulette wheel. At least when you lose, the only damage is the money lost.

But there's no loss of fluid, so in this case, there is nowhere to pour it.

But yes, there is no fix in a can for a blown head gasket, that won't clog up other passages.

I tried the Blue stuff; it worked for a few thousand miles. Not worth my time, I got it on sale so the price was not crippling

It just extended the time to the need to do the work!

That stuff can plug up heater cores. Don't use it.