My girlfriends 1992 camry is not running right. It keeps over heating and losing antifreeze. there is no coolant in the oil or vice versus and is not leaking in any noticable place. there has been a great amount of money put into the cooling system, and i no longer think that is the problem. I just need to know some of the basics with perfoming this task that the haynes manual will not or does not cover. 2.2L 4banger

Darrell, June 2006

You`ll nned to drain coolant and in the doing of headgasket you`ll need to do a oil and filter change ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,be sure it s a headgasket before jumping into deep water .....
bubbles in recovery jug while running .....heatr not working...
can pull plugs and pressure test cooling sytem overnite and in a.m. crank engine over while watching cylinders and see it any push coolant out whilee being cranked

bg, June 2006

What makes you think that it is a head gasket with no coolant in the oil or vice versa? Try taking the oil filler cap off to see if the rocker box is presurising. Do the same for the water - NOT when hot. We had a Merc once that was always losing water. After some years it turned out to be a pinhole radiator leak.

As you your question. I've not heard of peope doing a head gasket without draining the engine's fluids.

Terry, June 2006