HEad gasket defo gone :(

[Leon]

Spitting water out of teh exhaust :( :(
bugger

[JB]

That's bad news mate :(

But on a more positive note, you could drive it round Iraq and spread a little humanitarian relief with all that water ;)

[Martin T]

If i were you, when the head's off for the new gasket, I would be looking for the cxause of it going so soon.

[Leon]

Yeah, I will be.
I'm hoping it was a duff batch as the one that was fitted before shot all the water through it before the car even left the garage ramps...

[Martin T]

That sounds really dodgy - you want to check and see if your head's warped - either that or it could be something like wrong torque on the head bolts, or maybe allthough very unlikely they may have been done up in the wrong order.

[Leon]

Originally posted by Martin T
you want to check and see if your head's warped

I'm going to pretend that I didn't read that...

[Martin T]

Its not allways caatastrophic - sometimes its soo slight that it can be skimmed, but it still leaks water/gasses.
Lets just hope its a freak occurence:)

[PhilMorrison]

says warped head to me :(

[Leon]

what might have caused that then?
it was fine 9 months ago.... and hasn't had huge use since.... no significant problems.......

I think its jsut a bust gasket as its been gradual I suppose

[Pauly_Boy]

Originally posted by Martin T
That sounds really dodgy - you want to check and see if your head's warped - either that or it could be something like wrong torque on the head bolts, or maybe allthough very unlikely they may have been done up in the wrong order.

Done up in wrong order??

:confused:


Anyone wanna enlighten me?

[Martin T]

@Starionman - the main cause of warped heads is overheating. Cant think of any other reason off the top of my head.

@Pauly boy when you do up the cylinder head stretch bolts, you have to do them up in 2 stages, and in a special order - you sort of start in the middle doing them up to a lower torque, working your way out diagonally opposite, and then do them up fully to the correct setting, working form the middle outwards, diagonally opposite. Also, you must replace the bolts every time the head comes off, unless you want to have to drill the buggers out...

[Supraman1]

Youi should always skim an ally head when replacing the gasket, anywhere from 5-25 thou, just to get it dead flat. Most heads warp slightly during removal as the bolts are undone, it's not a big deal to skim them but you won't get a good seal otherwise.

[dunc]

Originally posted by Martin T

@Pauly boy when you do up the cylinder head stretch bolts, you have to do them up in 2 stages, and in a special order - you sort of start in the middle doing them up to a lower torque, working your way out diagonally opposite, and then do them up fully to the correct setting, working form the middle outwards, diagonally opposite. Also, you must replace the bolts every time the head comes off, unless you want to have to drill the buggers out...

This is a different order depending on which head i.e. from which type of car. The tightening sequence is always shown in the workshop manual for that particular car.

Sometimes it includes tightening up to the correct torque and then doing a 1/4 turn further or similar.

Dunc.