Blown Head Gasket

spacey2012

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

My car is on 153,000 miles on it's original DMF and clutch system. It's never had a major fault, all injectors are original and it runs lovely.

Rover 75 CDTI with the BMW M47 diesel engine.

Rover even replaced the swirl flaps on these, yes a fine example of what a diesel engine should be.
The lower powered mondeo 2 litre tdci is also showing long legs compared to the 130 bhp versions which shredded the DMF.
The trouble starts when they screw up the BHP on engines not built for it.

wag2610

spacey2012 wrote: »

It is the Dual mass flywheel, rumours that if you made 100,000 miles an the same one they gave you a gold plated car are only an urban myth.
But the cdti engine has a self destruct mechanism at 70,000 miles so you must have driven like a nun to get as far as you have.
But in short it means, once you start, something else is never far behind, so bodge fix and drop kick it.

Actually lol then when i read your reply. DMF never been replaced and i have defo not driven it like a nun. Drop kick seeming like the best idea at the moment dont want to chuck loads of cash at it for it to just keep breaking down . Cheers

wag2610

Retrogamer wrote: »

If it failed due to overheating from a coolant leak then didn't the temp gauge start rising and go into the red prior to the failure?

No has no internal temp gauge only overheating warning light which has never come on at all and does defo work as all warning light when engine is intially started and then go out of course.
I found that strange myself!!!

wag2610

Retrogamer wrote: »

If it failed due to overheating from a coolant leak then didn't the temp gauge start rising and go into the red prior to the failure?

car has no internal temp gauge just overheating warnong light which didnt come on!!!!

Retrogamer

spacey2012 wrote: »

It is the Dual mass flywheel, rumours that if you made 100,000 miles an the same one they gave you a gold plated car are only an urban myth.
But the cdti engine has a self destruct mechanism at 70,000 miles so you must have driven like a nun to get as far as you have.
But in short it means, once you start, something else is never far behind, so bodge fix and drop kick it.

Being a 54 plate won't it be either the 1.7dti or 2.0dti engine? They were a bit more robust than the cdti variants.

Gloomendoom

Apologies for the not particularly helpful post but...

Blown head gasket and not a Rover? How is that even possible?

Anyone that regularly frequents the MSE motoring forum will know that only Rovers can suffer from blown head gaskets. :huh:

sabretoothtigger

Rover made a fine racing engine and a poor work horse. Some will know the best Rovers had Honda engines in there long before BMW and Ford

Ratboy

As oil/water haven't mixed, and you had a leak/sudden fail, I'd suggest that the thermostat failed, maybe the waterpump, driven off the cambelt? Either of which isn't an engine fail, and nowhere near like what you were quoted.

You mention a leak?

I'd get a 2nd and 3rd opinion before ripping the engine apart.

Sniffer test for head gasket failure

Compression test to confirm gasket failure.

methinks you are in a hard place, and being bent over to spend money, that doesn't need to be spent!

thermostat costs £5, waterpump £40, fitting ???? new cambelt???

Does not sound like the engine failed at all. AFAIK this engine is failsafe, ie if cambelt breaks, it doesn't smash the engine to death.

good luck!

mattyprice4004

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Apologies for the not particularly helpful post but...

Blown head gasket and not a Rover? How is that even possible?

Anyone that regularly frequents the MSE motoring forum will know that only Rovers can suffer from blown head gaskets. :huh:

It's true - out of my 13 Rovers I've had 62 head gasket repairs and approximately 45% of my time behind the wheel has been on the hard shoulder, with steam pouring out of the bonnet.

In reality, I've had 1 failure, caused by me tracking around Oulton Park with a knackered waterpump. I thought I could keep it topped up... wrong! That head was very banana shaped. :rotfl:
I feel I should add how brilliant it was on track - so lovely and revvy (until the oil turned into milkshake, of course). If I hadn't tracked it (or fixed the pump) it'd probably have been fine.

All of the others have been fine - and 4 of them were the 'dreaded' K Series motor. All in all around 160,000 miles with one HG issue.

colino

While it is entirely possible a decent mechanic, with the wind blowing the right way, could repair a similar car for that price, everything else would have to be in fully serviceable order. What you have described is a pretty common way to knacker a head gasket, frequent water top ups, no investigation and presumably no obvious leaks. Cars with idiotic high temp. only lights are pretty much useless. It would have came on briefly as the water temp. shot through the roof, but as the water already had an exit route and the engine was at speed, the water would have pumped out, leaving your warning sensor out of the water flow and returning to its normally off setting.
I bet your mechanic strips the head, finds it bent like a banana and one of the cylinders and piston tops curiously clean and shiny.
Too old and leggy to throw this preliminary money at. ebay it with the story and look for something else.