Can a temporary head gasket fix last for a few months?
Temporary head gasket repairs and sealer treatments leave drivers unsure whether the engine will keep burning coolant, running hot, or leaking fluid into the oil to form a milky mixture. This uncertainty makes it difficult to know if a short-term fix will reliably hold up until they can get a new car or if it will demand ongoing oil changes and fluid monitoring.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from October 2026.
- This comes up 11.7× more often in r/MechanicAdvice than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Can a temporary head gasket fix last for a few months?
- 1Adding coolant twice a weekDid this help you?
- 2Using pour-in head gasket sealants like Blue Devil as a temporary fixDid this help you?
- 3Saving money for a proper head gasket replacement jobDid this help you?
- 4Performing compression tests, leak-down tests, or chemical exhaust gas testsDid this help you?
- 5Using head gasket sealer in the coolant as a temporary fix.Did this help you?
- 6Getting a factory service manual to follow exact bolt replacement and torque procedures.Did this help you?
- 7Outsourcing the head and block machining to a local machine shop.Did this help you?
- 8Dropping the entire engine out the bottom of the vehicle to get enough clearance.Did this help you?
- 9Buying a different or new car instead of attempting the repair.Did this help you?
- 10topping off the coolant each morningDid this help you?
- 11adding radiator stop leak and coolant conditionerDid this help you?
- 12swapping in a used junkyard engineDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Pretty sure my head gasket is blown. Bubbles in the radiator, coolant burning off.”source ↗
“Is it worth trying to replace the head gasket itself? I’m afraid the head is going to be warped.”source ↗
“New engine is hard to find as they only made this engine for 1 year.”source ↗
“I was told that there was alittle bit of milky stuff in my oil which probably meant that coolant got into it.”source ↗
“I have been losing coolant which was causing car to run hot recently.”source ↗
“My main question is when I change my oil an use the head gasket sealer treatment, will I have to change my oil again after the whole thing.”source ↗
“I didn't know that on my first head gasket job, and it failed predictably.”source ↗
“I have a 2014 lincoln mkx and my head gasket blew recently 🫠 i dont have the money to drop a good 2k to put it in a shop, so i was curious how difficult and expensive it would be to replace it and flush the lines myself.”source ↗
“My question is will having a shop put a head gasket in last until then, or will it keep burning coolant regardless.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 6How to know if a car has a blown head gasket
- 4Can you use RTV silicone to patch a hole in a timing belt cover?