These cars are notorious for cracked exhaust manifolds. It is unlikely a
head gasket could fail allowing combustion gases to make it to the
outside without also affecting the coolant or giving other symptoms.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of James Benthall
Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2005 10:46 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Symptoms of Blown Headgasket on Non-Vanagon

Hi all,
My neighbor lady has a terrible loud noise (that sounds like an exhaust
problem to me)
coming from her engine and it gets louder the faster she gets.  There is
no
coolant loss
or coolant in the oil, or oil in the coolant.  She has a older model
Toyota
Camry (sorry
for the NVC but she is elderly and I knew you guys would know the
answer) I
think an
'89 and she has been having an overheating problem due to a broken
thermostat
that has
since been replaced.  Now no overheating but she noticed this noise.
(She
also doesn't
know if the noise was there before the overheating or not?)
Question:
I think it is an exhaust manifold gasket but her mechanic told her on
the
phone that it
could be a "blown head gasket".  What are the symptoms of a BHG?  I
thought
you
would have coolant loss at least, or coolant in the oil?  Could it still
be
the BHG if the
car is no longer overheating?  Thanks for any advice you can give her.
james in houston