Head Gasket Gone - what to do?

mattyprice4004

s_b wrote: »

and theres your answer from a man in the trade
reminds me of those who ask that the garage get them an mot on a heap because they are going to sell it then return a year later with the same thing
or ask for a cheap engine fix because they are selling it then return when it breaks again


your choice/your money
remember the head will need skimming again
and those nice long bolts will all need replacing and tightening up the cheese sandwiche design again
then of course the correct antifreeze needs using
then its just a matter of time before it pops again

With all due respect, this post shows how much you know about this particular engine, OP I'd disregard this information.

The head doesn't always need skimming, if it's not been badly overheated you won't need to. Did it stop due to the overheat, or did he stop it? The only way to check if it needs a skim is to have it off and check for flatness with an engineer's rule, and then for hardness. Skimming removes the hardened head face which is only a few thou thick, if it must be done the garage should use a head-saver shim which is usually included with the MLS gasket kit.

If the bolts are within tolerance they won't need replacing, and kindly tell me which engine doesn't need head bolts tightening?

Using correct antifreeze is fairly normal. Any garage should know which to use.

For £500 you'd only end up with a wreck, remember 'better the devil you know'.

Make sure the waterpump and cambelt are changed at the same time, and leave the rest to the garage as long as they know what they are doing.

I've done a lot of work on K series engines, and when looked after they're excellent. Once the head is done, it should never go again if done well. Unfortunately it's easy to find someone who thinks they know everything, makes a hash of it, and then it fails again.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

With all due respect, this post shows how much you know about this particular engine, OP I'd disregard this information.

The head doesn't always need skimming, if it's not been badly overheated you won't need to. Did it stop due to the overheat, or did he stop it? The only way to check if it needs a skim is to have it off and check for flatness with an engineer's rule, and then for hardness. Skimming removes the hardened head face which is only a few thou thick, if it must be done the garage should use a head-saver shim which is usually included with the MLS gasket kit.

If the bolts are within tolerance they won't need replacing, and kindly tell me which engine doesn't need head bolts tightening?

Using correct antifreeze is fairly normal. Any garage should know which to use.

For £500 you'd only end up with a wreck, remember 'better the devil you know'.

Make sure the waterpump and cambelt are changed at the same time, and leave the rest to the garage as long as they know what they are doing.

I've done a lot of work on K series engines, and when looked after they're excellent. Once the head is done, it should never go again if done well. Unfortunately it's easy to find someone who thinks they know everything, makes a hash of it, and then it fails again.

never skimp on the head bolts they strech once undone throw themunless you have set made wich you can retighten and they cost just as much as secondhand engine.

there was trouble with the old style headgasket where the rubber water seals in the gasket were just poorly designed revised with MLS type gasket.

as a rule i dont bother with making sure the head is warped or not, i used to get the head skimmed and pressure tested as a precaution as with inspecting the cam lobes for defacing if they were defaced, cams out and replaced, valves out valve seats gound, engine flushed (metal shards would sit in the filter and oil pickup from the cams).

chris175

When the garage replace the head gasket, rather than just replacing it then waiting for it to go again, make sure they investigate WHY it went in the first case.

There are hundreds of K-series engines out there that are simply fitted with a new head gasket without proper investigation, and then shock horror they go again.

Usual suspects are Water Pump leaking, Radiator or dropped Liners.

Have a trip over to the MG-Rover.org forum and there are lots of people who know the engine inside and out.

vaio

rev_henry wrote: »

...........In 3 years I'll have graduated and have enough money to buy something a bit more upmarket.......

More upmarket than a rover 25? On a recent graduate's wages? After another three years of this government?

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

s_b

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

With all due respect, this post shows how much you know about this particular engine, OP I'd disregard this information.

The head doesn't always need skimming, if it's not been badly overheated you won't need to. Did it stop due to the overheat, or did he stop it? The only way to check if it needs a skim is to have it off and check for flatness with an engineer's rule, and then for hardness. Skimming removes the hardened head face which is only a few thou thick, if it must be done the garage should use a head-saver shim which is usually included with the MLS gasket kit.

If the bolts are within tolerance they won't need replacing, and kindly tell me which engine doesn't need head bolts tightening?

Using correct antifreeze is fairly normal. Any garage should know which to use.

For £500 you'd only end up with a wreck, remember 'better the devil you know'.

Make sure the waterpump and cambelt are changed at the same time, and leave the rest to the garage as long as they know what they are doing.

I've done a lot of work on K series engines, and when looked after they're excellent. Once the head is done, it should never go again if done well. Unfortunately it's easy to find someone who thinks they know everything, makes a hash of it, and then it fails again.

er.............

My father was driving it to the garage to get the brakes looked at when it went - overheated

absolute rubbish
these engines are built in a ladder rack and you need new bolts to make sure the engine is bolted together so that there is no rigidity lost in it
dreadful engine and a dreadful design where the inlet manifold bolts on
dreadful that it takes 8 hours to strip a head down
dreadful that wrong antifreeze hasten failure
dreadful that the water system only holds enough and any leak causes catastophic failure very quickly
dreadful that with it being aluminium if you dont skim at least one surface you are wasting your time

dreadful that they do and will go again because the design is bad

but you know all that anyway
of course if they were built properly the company would still be in business

dont teach me to suck eggs with a rubbish post

Road_Hog

s_b wrote: »

of course if they were built properly the company would still be in business

If BAE hadn't flogged Rover off to BMW, and left them in partnership with Honda, they'd also still be in business.

pendulum

Goes to show the importance of researching a car before you buy it (Don't say you did, a K series equipped car is about the most warned against you'll ever find)

Headgasket work on that engine should be considered routine scheduled maintenance, I have done one (as one of my first mechanical jobs) and not that difficult, do you not fancy getting some tools and having a go yourself like a lot of Rover owners have to? Mind you it will still come to more £££ in parts than I'd be happy to spend on a Rover.

colino

While fundamentally it is an interesting engine (and a lot of them are successfully highly tuned) and there is a comprehensive rebuild kit available, I think as its already gone pop before and it is 8 years old with other work required, your head should really tell you to ebay it, let someone else do the grunt work, and cut your loses.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

doesnt take 8 hours to strip down the head unless you doing it for the first time and reading a haynes as you go along.

last time i did one of these labour time was 2 hours. the longest part of the job was removing and reintalling the timing belt water pump etc. delays were the headbeing skimmed and pressure tested and getting the parts.

cost wise doing it myself £75.00 headskim and test, £32.00 headset MLS INC new head guides and headsaver. £58.00 timing kit £23.00 waterpump, £4.00 thermostat and gasket, then all service items ontop such as oil antifreeze plugs air filter oil filter fuel filter engine flush.

rev_henry

vaio wrote: »

More upmarket than a rover 25? On a recent graduate's wages? After another three years of this government?

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Ha, I'm fortunate enough to be a Pharmacy student; no shortage of work. Unless the government destroy the NHS further that is.

pendulum wrote: »

Goes to show the importance of researching a car before you buy it (Don't say you did, a K series equipped car is about the most warned against you'll ever find)

Headgasket work on that engine should be considered routine scheduled maintenance, I have done one (as one of my first mechanical jobs) and not that difficult, do you not fancy getting some tools and having a go yourself like a lot of Rover owners have to? Mind you it will still come to more £££ in parts than I'd be happy to spend on a Rover.

I did but it was supposedly done 3 years ago so I didn't worry.
No I don't really fancy that haha.

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

never skimp on the head bolts they strech once undone throw themunless you have set made wich you can retighten and they cost just as much as secondhand engine.

there was trouble with the old style headgasket where the rubber water seals in the gasket were just poorly designed revised with MLS type gasket.

as a rule i dont bother with making sure the head is warped or not, i used to get the head skimmed and pressure tested as a precaution as with inspecting the cam lobes for defacing if they were defaced, cams out and replaced, valves out valve seats gound, engine flushed (metal shards would sit in the filter and oil pickup from the cams).

The garage said they always skim them anyway so that's fine. I'll ask about the other stuff.

I'll also be making sure they look into the root cause of it going. As I said (did I?) it was losing a little bit of water quite slowly, maybe this has something to do with it. From a perusal of the MG-Rover forums my thoughts were inlet manifold gasket or expansion cap as starting points.

I didn't ask this question over there as I knew they'd say to keep and repair at all costs!