Well, I know what a
cylinder head is, but if you just say "head", well, that could mean a lot of things. I'm not going to pretend like I know everything about engines, it could have been something I didn't know. The how-to on gagt.com has replies from people who've never even changed their oil before who were able to complete the task successfully by following instructions carefully. I had read the whole tutorial already, but what I am in need of now is diagnostic information.
The main question I have is how do I determine whether I have a head leak or a LIMG leak, or if I somehow have both. I read one post that stated that a lot of steam in the exhaust along with disappearing coolant was indicative of a head leak, I'm not sure if I had that problem at some point or not.
And even if I really would not have the capability to do this repair, I still would like to be armed with the knowledge of just exactly what the problem is, how it's fixed, and how much it should cost. If there's one thing I hate, it's people trying to fleece me... it's just scummy. I have very little resources, and I can't afford to waste them because someone is able to trick me.
But to the people telling me that I have no chance of doing this- I think you're wrong. At some point, you yourselves were at the same knowledge level as I am now. You were able to learn, and so can I. I'll read the haynes manual, I'll do research and even buy car repair books if I have to. Actually doing this repair myself has a lot of value to me in that I will learn quite a bit in the process. It also possible that I can't really afford to pay someone else to do this for me. I mean, I have the money, but I really have more important things to spend it on, though I won't really get into that because it's really not related at all to this topic. It's not really that I'm cheap, I just really want to learn to do this on my own... with you guys' help.
TO the guys telling me about coolant/water. I was ambiguous when I talked about coolant. Anything that I put in the coolant tank that acts as coolant, including water, I call coolant. If I'm not mistaken, antifreeze/coolant gets diluted with water anyway. I started out with WHATEVER it is that a lube shop would put in your car, but that leaked. I refilled with water a couple times, but that also leaked out. Whatever is left of coolant and water (that which has not already drained out), that's what's in there. Meaning, my coolant is low or nonexistant. I don't know if that's horrible or permissible, but really, like I said, my engine rarely even runs hot. Besides, I'd rather run with low "radiatior fluid" than risk letting water get into my engine and pwn it hardc0re.