New head gasket price

Jackmydad

Never seen or heard it called a cylinder cover.
I used to be a bit of a geek about engines in general and would read anything and everything I could get hold of.

Someone said it's a term used with large engines.
What about steam engines? Do they have "covers" rather than "heads"?

Dunno.

Otherwise as said if I was the OP I'd be getting some proper tests done rather than "It sounds like it might be, give us 1800 quid"

ratrace

Ashley_Grant wrote: »

Hi everybody, I'm new to these forum things. I've recently been to a couple of car garages as I've got quite a loud ticking noise coming from the engine for a month or so. I've lost power in accelerating & speed. The garage has said that the head gasket has gone & I need a new one. The cars a 14plate Astra GTC, he quoted me an eye watering £1800 Inc labour. I'm wondering if that's a standard price or have I been over quoted? Also if I bought the head gasket myself would labour be cheaper, as I've seen them online for £50 or am I looking at the wrong thing haha!

Any help would be appreciated.

Is it a petrol or diesel, if its a diesel then its unlikely the headgasket has gone, i have a astra j 1.7 cdti 160k on the clock still on its orinigal head gasket, on petrol models yes its more common

if i was you i would get the car check out properly before forking out a lot of cash, a noise noise could be anything from a noisy chain to a faulty water pump, there is a few things you can do starting from now, Check to see

does the coolent bottle have any sign of oil in it
does the oil cap have a built up mayo white stuff under the cap
is the coolent getting low
is the car overheating

if any above are happing then it could be an indication that there is a leak somewhere ie: join, pipe, gasket etc....

the next thing i would do it its a petrol model is simply pull the spark plugs out and see if they are wet
the next thing i would do is put my boro scope down the plug holes of each cylinder and see if any of the cylinders are clean compred to others (this is an indiction that there is a leak as the top of the piston is gettign cleaned via steam ie a leak)

see thease are the things you have to do to find a fault instead of hearing a noise and telling the customer thats £1800 quid please

get the car correctly diagnosed before spending money

50Twuncle

The rocker cover sits on top of the head and protects the camshaft and valve tops from dirt and it keeps the oil in the engine
I very much doubt whether the OP's problem is related to the cover
As for price - yes £1500 - £1800 appears to be the sort of figure quoted by garages these days - it should take a competent mechanic around 6 hours to change the head gasket - longer (with more expense) if the head needs skimming (flattening) - due to warping from overheating !

esmerobbo

oldagetraveller wrote: »

The cylinder head is the top of the block.

AdrianC wrote: »

No, it isn't.

That would be an interesting casting process if it was an iron block and an aluminium head (cover)

50Twuncle

esmerobbo wrote: »

That would be an interesting casting process if it was an iron block and an aluminium head (cover)

I believe that you are getting confused yourself.....
The cylinder block is either cast iron or alloy with steel liners.
The Cylinder head sits on top of the block and tends to be alloy
The Cover sits on top of the head and tends to be alloy nowadays !

esmerobbo

50Twuncle wrote: »

I believe that you are getting confused yourself.....
The cylinder block is either cast iron or alloy with steel liners.
The Cylinder head sits on top of the block and tends to be alloy
The Cover sits on top of the head and tends to be alloy nowadays !

Think you are confused by what I posted, I was being flippant like tongue in cheek regarding an earlier post regarding the head/cover being the top of a block. I posted it would be an interesting casting process if the block and head were two different metals . It was not serious!


Thanks for the insight into the castings of an engine block and a cylinder head, but there was no need honestly, I was taught all about this when I served my apprenticeship in motor vehicle engineering way back in 1971 then working in diesel engineering until 1985 and eventually running my own haulage company and commercial vehicle repair workshop.

However thanks for the explanation and relieving my confusion. :rotfl: