I ask because for a wee while now I seem to have been chasing coolant leaks around the car, culminating last night in the heater matrix letting go.

 

There's no water in the oil and so far as I can tell, no oil in the water and while the top rad pipe gets a bit 'firm' after a drive I don't 'think' it's unduly pressurised.

 

So, am I potentially looking at a blown cylinder head gasket?

I'd say you'd be better off with a sniff test to see if combustion gas is getting into the water.

As far as I know these cars aren't prone to HG failure but it can happen.

head gaskets don't seem to be an issue unless the car overheats!

Aluminium heads with cast iron block means HG or head warping is very likely if the car overheats from other causes. Not prone to HG failure otherwise though.

Well, it did overheat once to my knowledge but that was last July/August and it seems to have been fine up till recently.

 

Does the type of antifreeze antifreeze have an effect? What colour should it be?

more likely just perished water pipes, can you not see where it's leaking from?

There were a couple, but I've stemmed the leaks.

 

I'm starting to think it's more likely to be a blown CHG as the top rad hose does seem to be a bit pressurised, (I've seen worse mind you!), and when I released the rad' cap last night after having left the car standing for three hours with the bonnet open, there was still pressure in the system.

 

So, how difficult/expensive is a CHG job? (I'm not about to dive into it, I WILL get it checked out properly before I do anything stupid.)

 

Or is it easier/more cost effective to buy a replacement engine from Jeff and have it shipped up here?