on way home from football yesterday sounded like she started pinking under load ,but kept pottering along thinking supermarket petrol was junk (big mistake) stopped at a roundabout steam coming from under bonnet,stoppped called aa , head gasket gone.whne aa arrived starting up was a pain and when she did catch sounded horrible by the time i got home and she was cold started her to park up started on button and sounded fine ,even aa man looked shocked. but now what to do anyone any idea what this will cost to fix? also how long cos getting to work just got much harder

Are you sure a gasket has blown?And that it just didnt overhead for another reason?Two simple quick checks is ,check the oil,if its a bad leak,it will let water from the wanter jackets into the bore or oil way,this shows up as the oil looking from a blackish grey to brown,but this may take a little while to show.Second is with the engine running for a few mins to warm up,check the rad for water bubbling alot,this is a sign that the gasket is leaking near a bore and its pushing the compression into the water ways.

Yes second that AA diagnosis may need further investigation to confirm it, if you have a serious hg failure they overheat real quick so even a drive around the block will show it out.

 

Jeff TT

thanks the aa man did a test with some blue liquid which turned green but will get checked out

a sniffer test ? i've had one done on mine and it turned green (after some time) i believe that does indicate gasket failure but you may want to investigate further as Jeff say's :)

 

Chris

I have similar blue dye test kit.Its always been spot on for me.Looks like youll have to do a compression test and see what side is leaking.Bummer.Best get ur toolbox out...

is changing hg possible diy job? done a sd1 rover and a mustang but compaired to z they were stone age

is it possible to take the head off with the engine still fitted?

I suppose at the end of the day its just an engine, but a complicated one at that i've had three local mechanics laugh when i enquired about them doing my gaskets, hence why im banking as much as poss until i reach a figure where i can hand it to Jeff and know it will come back fully sorted with a recon engine and full mot :)

yes both can be removed with engine in:)

 

It is but it's a pain & found it quicker to take the whole engine out & do all the other bits while it's out! Egr delete, plenum bypass, cam belt water pump etc & give it all a good clean so it looks nice when u open the bonnet ... Makes a big difference steam cleaning the engine bay too while it's out:yinyang: