When a head gasket is blown, there's a variety of signs and symptoms your car can produce, but can be hard to nail down until serious damage is already done.

When even a small part of the head gasket is breached, or "blown," your car will run poorly -- if at all -- spewing white or blue smoke from the tailpipe and burning through a lot of oil, coolant ...

Ray: Once the head is off, he might see a clear breach in the head gasket. That'd be the best-case scenario, and I'd say there's an 80 percent chance that that's what he'll find.

When there's a breach in the head gasket, the engine will burn coolant, which could explain why your vehicle loses coolant despite having no external leaks.

Ray:Once the head is off, he might see a clear breach in the head gasket. That’d be the best-case scenario, and I’d say there’s an 80 percent chance that that’s what he’ll find.