head gasket check: detect exhaust gas in the coolant tank

Hello,
i would like to check my head gasket,
i saw there are some kits that should detect if there is CO2 into the coolant tank.

These kits are composed by two parts:
- the detector liquid
- the pipe with bulb

The liquid is normally cheap, with 10$ you can buy it.

Instead, the pipe with bulb is a little bit expensive:
it seems only a plastic transparent pipe with a bulb on the top, so i dont understand why it should cost so much.

I wonder if i can do the check in some way buying only the liquid.
Any suggestion?

Thank you!!

vicolodo wrote:These kits are composed by two parts:
- the detector liquid
- the pipe with bulb

The liquid is normally cheap, with 10$ you can buy it.

There are two types of liquid, the blue for petrols and an improved red one for diesels (here).

I think the kit costs a bit is because its designed to be used many times in a garage which means it could be dropped, and generally mishandled.

I would think if you could get the gasses from the expansion bubbled through the liquid without loosing the liquid into the coolant, you have a solution.

I would bite the bullet and buy the kit and sell it on if you ever give up fixing cars