what's the deal with "head gaskets"

paddedjohn

londonTiger wrote: »

Oh OK. So I presume if you were to add head gasket replacement into the long life service. It should come up to a reasonable £50 or something? rather than £500?

As already stated there is no way you will get it done for £50, that said, if you bring me a Cortina or old Escort I will have it done within an hour or so for £50.;)

reeac

paddedjohn wrote: »

As already stated there is no way you will get it done for £50, that said, if you bring me a Cortina or old Escort I will have it done within an hour or so for £50.;)

My feeling, having owned mostly older cars for 56 years and changed a few head gaskets is that hgf is very rare if the design and assembly are done correctly. It should NOT be seen as a regular maintenance item.

TrickyWicky

reeac wrote: »

It should NOT be seen as a regular maintenance item.

In my view, any car that requires a HG to be replaced a second time is looking to be scrapped or have its engine replaced.

ILW

Lat time I did one was an old style mini. Took a couple of hours.

Gilbert2

Joe_Horner wrote: »

Ford do make other models, you know?

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/10/27/ford-rushes-to-fix-gearbox-problems-but-not-quickly-enough-for/

The member stated 'Ford with gearbox issues,' which rather suggests 'Ford' as a manufacturer, being all encompassing.

Last time I checked Ford made the Mondeo.

However, thanks for the link, which clearly shows 2 model of car with this problem, rather than all Ford models.

albionrovers

We used to make head gaskets out of cardboard covered in tin foil back in the old biker days in the 70s. True.

TrickyWicky

You say that albion, a mate of mine made a water pump gasket out of a cornflakes box lol. He says it dripped a bit but for the most page provided a very good seal lol.

Daz2009

There's a world of difference between say a 1.3 crossflow Ford engine circa 70-80's with something modern with variable valve timing and suchlike.The latter requiring specialist tools not to mention knowledge.
Heck some cars are an engine out job .......the main thing is to find out what caused the head gasket failure in the 1st place and remedy that.

For the OP,head gasket replacement is not a service item it's a major engine failure !

redux

albionrovers wrote: »

We used to make head gaskets out of cardboard covered in tin foil back in the old biker days in the 70s. True.

I have a roughly foot high wifi aerial just in front of me with a curved reflector behind it made of those materials.

It improves the signal enough to pass through 2 or 3 walls and reach the dongle in the back of the TV in the other room well enough for iPlayer or Youtube

mattyprice4004

In response to previous posts, it is worthy of note of course that the K series engines did go through several 'phases', with differing levels of success regarding long-term reliability.

First of all, engine size. Throughout it's life the K was available in a few different sizes - 1.1, 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8.
HGF rates tend to increase as engine capacity does - higher heat load and forces within the engine put more strain on the gasket.

Secondly, Rover did make a few adjustments to 'fix' the issue. None worked 100%, however with all the 'fixes' to date you'll have a pretty solid engine.
- Move to metal dowels to reduce head shuffle
- Improvement of manufacturing tolerances on later engines
- Fitting of a low coolant alarm on certain models
There were also a few other adjustments made.

Finally, Land Rover made some pretty drastic changes to the engine (after Rover went under):
- A new Multi Layer Steel head gasket
- A strengthened oil rail
- A pressure release thermostat, to reduce thermal shock

Owning a later K series (post-2000) is about as easy as any other car, especially if the above parts have been fitted.