Minneapolis Auto Repair

WHAT IS A BLOWN HEAD GASKET? “Blown head gasket" can be one of the scariest phrases in car culture. At DJ Foreign Auto Care, we know this is true. Even non-car people know the term and know it can be an expensive fix. Let's talk about your conventional head gasket, how to tell if you blew a head gasket, and steps you can take to prevent a blown head gasket. A CLOSER LOOK AT HEAD GASKETS A head gasket is a seal placed between the surfaces of an engine block and the cylinder head(s). It has two purposes:  A head gasket, being part of the combustion chamber, helps to contain the combustion process for you to have a functioning engine.  The head gasket provides a physical extension of the fluid passages from head to block. The fluids in your engine all serve a diffe ... read more

  BMW crankcase vent valves fail more often this time of year and we see more of these types of problems as the weather gets colder. The BMW crankcase ventilation valve is also known as the oil separator, CCV, or PCV valve.  According to Wikipedia, "A crankcase ventilation system is a one way passage for gases to escape in a controlled manner from the crankcase of an internal combustion engine.  This is necessary because internal combustion inevitably involves a small but continual amount of blow-by, which occurs when some of the gases from the combustion leak past the piston rings (that is, blow by them) to end up inside the cr ... read more