RIP '92 Camry SE

My head gasket finally gave out last night.  Leaving work and heading up the rise on Palomar Airport Rd, I noticed a shimmy and loss of engine compression -- it actually felt like I was trying to drive with the parking break engaged.  But out of my rear view mirror I could see a cloud of white smoke when I tried to accelerate and immediately knew: head gasket. 

Temperature was fine and it didn't sound like anything in the cylinders was hosed, but I chose not to drive it any further and risk cracking the block.  But I knew that even if it was only the head gasket, that would spell doom for the car since it's hardly even worth what the repair itself would cost.  And who knows what other evil was lurking under the hood, such as damage to the cylinder block or radiator system?

So, I walked back to work and started to assess my options.  I could junk the car and just try to find a cheapo used replacement, hopefully for $2K or less.  Or, I could get it to my mechanic and let him evaluate the situation and propose a bare bones repair.  If it came in under $1500, and the car was otherwise road worthy with nothing big impending, maybe that'd be a better option than buying someone else's problems. 

Another option -- out of the box -- was to do what a workmate of mine did with his old Mercedes when he blew his gasket and cracked the head.  Lacking any other choice short of junking the car, he tried Blue Devil Coolant Sealant figuring how could it get any worse other than spending $60 for something that didn't work.  Well, it worked for him.  His car's been running for over a year since with no problem. 

Looking at the comments about Blue Devil online, it would seem to be a crap shoot.  Works for some; not for others.  And I may have complications that would render such a bandaid solution a non-starter to begin with.  But I'm thinking about giving it a try.  Tonight, I'm going to move the car the 5 miles to a trusted mechanic who will examine the engine tomorrow and tell me what I'm looking at and if there's more to the picture than just the gasket.  If my cooling system is otherwise okay, I'll have him flush the radiator good, remove the thermostat and then apply this sealant product.  If I'm lucky, I could be back on the road for just a couple hundred dollars.  I wouldn't expect it to be anything more than temporary, but at least it would keep me mobile until I figure out a long term solution.  And if I'm really lucky, it'll hang in there for the rest of the year. 

If I'm not so lucky...looks like I'll be shopping Auto Trader for the next couple weeks and arranging rides with people to get to/from work.

Oh yeah...this is a fitness blog; not Car Talk.

With time on my hands, I did a second session at the gym last night, doing some light cardio while watching TV and then doing my push-up/sit-up/chin-up challenge thingie.  Today, I spent 20 minutes on the treadmill, going lightly at 6.5 for 10 minutes and then dropping the speed to 5.5 and trying the retro-running thing again.  I really enjoy that.  It works different leg muscles, counter balancing the forward running effort, and at only 5.5 it gets my HR up over 140. 

But that was just a warmup and I switch over to the elliptical for my main "running" workout.  The calf feels great, but I'm not going to take a chance with it yet on heavy impact cardio.  I chose the interval profile and did 45 minutes, adjusting the crossramp and resistance to match the cadence of the songs I was listening to on my headphones.  I don't usually workout with headphones, but today I did. 

Should be a circuit training day, but I'll probably skip it.  Joan and Quin will come meet me after I drop the car off at Terry's (the mechanic) in San Marcos, so I'd have to bale from work now if I was going to get a strength training session in.  I don't feel like it. 

(Danny Phantom is still gracing my chest.  The "temporary tattoo" hasn't washed off yet.  I might need some nail polish remover or something.  Maybe I should put those temporary tattoos in my cooling system.  Maybe they could plug the gasket leak?)