Thanks for the feed back, Kruse. I don't think my brother put many miles on
the car after the gasket went out, and I don't think he drove it hot. I
guess the mechanic changed the oil (and flushed the engine?) again.
Yesterday my brother said the oil looked milky after the second oil change.
But today after he put a few more miles on it he said the oil didn't look
bad. So maybe the engine is alright. I don't know. But he says he is
going to trade the car in since it needs some other work too.

Your feed back made sense to me. Actually made me feel better about the
mechanic also. Sometimes mechanics get bad raps against them when they
don't deserve it. Thanks again for the feedback.

Randy


"Kruse" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> On Feb 10, 10:19 am, "Randy E Schaben" > wrote:
>>
>> My brother had his head gasket repaired on his '98 Monte Carlo 3.1 V6
>> (POS)
>> as the oil had a milky look to it. After repair the milky oil returned.
>> Now mech. says block may be cracked.
>> Question: Should the mechanic been able to know the difference between
>> bad
>> head gasket and cracked block?
>>
>
> I'm going to comment on this because I've done some work on the 3.1
> and 3.4 GM engines and this was when I was a Ford tech. Go figure.
> It would be hard for the tech to find the cracked block when just
> replacing the head gaskets or the cracked heads, especially if there
> was a visible fault from the head gaskets or the heads. Also, the tech
> really wouldn't know the history of the car. Did the oil just start
> getting milky or did the driver run the engine hot for a half hour?
> Remember too, that to do a thorough job of finding the cracks the
> block should be checked by a machine shop, impossible to do with the
> block in the car.
>
> Whatever the problem now, the dealer now just wants to replace
> everything to make sure the problem goes away. You will probably find
> the the dealer's estimate will be more than what the car is worth.
>
>