Original Thread: Anyone know which head gasket sealer to use on my car?
By: TurboNate Thread Start Date: 06-11-16 8:47PM (63 LIKES - 07 DISLIKES)
Got the bad news today from my mechanic… My head gasket is blown. $6400 to replace the gasket and theres literally no way I’m going to go that route. I heard of head gasket sealers but with my aluminum engine
which one should I use? I’ve heard bad things about Bars and Blue Devil sealers but theres gotta be something out there that can help and not screw up my car. If I can get a few more years out of this car I can have
it paid off and move on to something else. Thanks everyone… If it helps here’s exactly whats going on:
1. On start-up I’m getting white smoke from exhaust
2. It goes away after about 10 minutes but comes back if I dump the pedal hard on take-off…
3. Engine pushes water out of over-flow tank after driving hard…
4. Overheats if water level gets low…
5. Some water in oil…
Ok first thing you definitely have a blown head gasket and it actually sounds pretty bad if your mixing fluids. I’ve tried blue devil once on a jeep liberty a few years ago cause it cost more to replace the head gasket then
the car was worth and it worked but only for a week or so. Turns out it couldn’t stick to the aluminum heads called them back for a refund and could never actually get through to anyone… Next I went on line and found
thermagasket sealer it cost a lot more then blue devil but figured it sounded better then blue devil so ordered it and again it worked but only for about a week! Lost about 120 bucks on that one. Their customer service
(or lack of service) was the worst ever. The guy hung up on me once… Called back talked to someone else and they told me they would credit my visa, well never got that credit!!!
Went back on the internet and actually did some research. Turns out all the brands like blue devil, bars, thermagasket, steel seal and nano-technology all use the exact same stuff!!! They all use whats called water glass
also know as sodium silicate as their sealer formula. So basically the only thing thats different from one brand to the other is the label… I found that silicate sealers were actually made for steel heads and steel blocks all
the way back in the 1960s and all the brands are still using it cause its super cheap to produce problem is water glass won’t stick to the newer aluminum heads or blocks. The aluminum expands to much and just cracks
it right off.. I found titan sealer that actually makes their sealer geared towards aluminum engines it can flex with the aluminum and won’t crack off!!! If you have aluminum heads or blocks I recommend the titan sealer…
Took me a while to find them on the web but their sealer worked and it’s been almost 4 years and no problems (at least with the head gasket) on the liberty…
The only one that will work on your Audi is Titan… They make it for every engine out here including yours. It’s called Titan Head Gasket Sealer, it’s not water glass like Bars Sealer so it can’t hurt your engine. I used it
in my 98 Audi a4 2.8 Quattro a few years ago cause even back in 98 the heads on my Quattro were aluminum and their stuff is made for that… They use some special polymer instead of water glass or silicate like the
other sealers out there.
Stay away from Thermagasket that shit destroyed my water pump… Never heard of Titan Sealer…
O.K. did my research… If what they say is true then yeah go with the Titan sealer if you can’t replace the head gasket. Sounds like it’s the best out there. Let us know what happens dude.
I don’t use no sealers! Take it apart and fix it yourself…
Yeah like everybody knows how to change the head gasket. If you don’t follow the easy directions below
1- Remove heads
2- Break Stuff
3- Call tow truck
4- Have sent to repair shop
I used Blue Devil on my 98 Ford F150 and it worked fine for almost 2 years. Cheap and easy…
Tubonote’s Audi is a lot different then your F150! The Audi is all aluminum and your F150 is steel head iron block. There’s no way I’d put water glass in an aluminum engine! I don’t think I’d even put it in your F150!
Water glass causes clogs and always cracks off in the end…
There’s a reason the Titan Head Gasket Sealer people DON’T use the glass stuff…
Do your homework and you’ll see why the water glass stuff is outdated…
How come the other sealers like Blue Devil and Bars use water glass instead of the polymer Titan uses?
Titan’s got the patent on the polymer… so other brands are screwed. LOL
Certified Mechanic 22 years here in Canada… I’ve basically tried every sealer out there at my repair shop and heres the break down!
Blue Devil (Causes more damage then good- used it on a BMW 3 Series and clogged the heater-core. Used it on a Land Rover and it made the aluminum water pump leak. Don’t know why I keep trying it…)
Bars (Really doesn’t do much either way. Never got it work completely on anything but at least it didn’t damage anything. This is a serious case of you get what you pay for!)
Steel Seal (Works 60/40 on steel heads and blocks sometimes on aluminum engines if it’s a very small leak at the head. Only used it 2-3 times over the years.)
Thermagsket (Causes more damage then good- They put fibers in their water-glass based sealer. A customer brought it to me to use on His Chevy Equinox and it completely clogged the radiator in 15 minutes.)
Titan Sealer (Works better then the others on any vehicle with aluminum heads/engine- I even tried it on a FREIGHTLINER CASCADIA SEMITRUCK!!! with water getting into the oil and it worked. But not cheapest!!!)