Error Code P0303 After Oil Change

Well I had a change to go out and look at the engine bay more clearly. Yeah looks like its a head gasket leak. There is almost no coolant left in the tank.

 

Thank you.

 

Ok, so in an interesting turn of developments, on Saturday when I snapped that picture of the coolant tank while inspecting it, it made a loud hissing sound when I opened the cap and a lot of air came out. It was under pressure. It gave me a little bit of a scare.

However, now that I let out that pressure, it seems like the gasket leak problem has gone away. I started it up right after I opened the tank and the engine did not rattle at all. This morning before going to work, same thing, no rattle. And then leaving work, again, started up perfectly fine.

Does the engine put the coolant tank under pressure? Is it ok to drive it after I released that pressure? Because it was driving fine. I'm considering clearing out the P0303 fault code and continuing driving it to see if it comes back, but it feels like its back to normal.

Now with that said, do you think I should still go ahead and tackle the head gasket replacement? I called a place and was quoted $2,500 to fix it.

However, after studying the repair job I am now more confident that I can fix it myself. The only issue is I don't have a garage to fix it, and I have to cleanout/organize my hoarder aunts garage to have a proper place to fix it (rain/weather) and to start buying all the parts, supplies, and tools I am going to need for this job. As of this point I'm kind of looking at this as a blessing in disguise to where I have some extra buffer/lead time so I can tackle it. More so, it will give me an opportunity to change out other items that should probably be replaced while I am in there.