Head gasket failure?

Evening folks

Well I've had my 1457 (JB) coming up to a fortnight and only had enough time at the weekend to confirm she has spark and petrol getting through.

She turns over fine, but there's no signs of life.

When I took the plugs out, there was fluffy white deposits on 3 and 4, which makes me suspect water.

The car was being driven and was overheating when it gave up the ghost Considerable water loss was going on at the time and I can't see evidence of any leaks.

No emulsion anywhere at all.

I've just done a compression test and the results are:
1: 92PSI/6.4bar
2: 87PSI/6bar
3: 110PSI/7.6bar
4: 84PSI/5.8bar

My Haynes doesn't mention what she should be making, but I'll take a pot-shot that anything below 110 is too low on a worn engine (134k).

Can anyone tell me what she should be making?

Do you think it's conclusive?

Given the overheating, I'm going to presume it's likely the head will need skimming.  Head removal looks pretty straightforward - is there anything I should watch out for, given I've done plenty of head gaskets, but not one of these before.

Your thoughts and advice would be very much appreciated.

Cheers

Gaz

Fairly conclusive:





Two headbolts were loose and the other eight were nowhere near tight enough.  Couple of the water channels were clogged up too (it had neat water in it) which no doubt hasn't helped.

Hope to get it checked for any warping tomorrow and then get it back together

Weather just about held out long enough :roll:

Gaz

I'd definitely have the head skimmed while it's off - even though your problem seemed to be loose bolts, it'd be a shame to get it back together only to find that it is a little warped…

HTH

Rich

That's the plan - down to a local engine place who can check and skim it if need be - job for tomorrow lunchtime

Gaz

Engine skimmer reckons it may need ten thou taken off of it.  Sent me away with a flea in my ear, telling me to bring it back after I'd stripped the head down properly ops:  :roll:

Gaz

Are those bores ok? it looks like one of them has picked up?might just be picture!!

collo16v said

Are those bores ok? it looks like one of them has picked up?might just be picture!!

I only gave the bores a cursory glance after getting the head off due to the light fading, but they appeared and felt okay.  No.4 looks oily coz I squirted it with oil to see if a wet test would throw up anything different (it didn't).

There's obviously a lot of water ingress at No.2 and a bit in No.1.  HG looks like it'd blown in several places.

What bit are you looking at? - I'll go take a closer look and photo.

Gaz

Grumpy said

collo16v said

Are those bores ok? it looks like one of them has picked up?might just be picture!!

I only gave the bores a cursory glance after getting the head off due to the light fading, but they appeared and felt okay.  No.4 looks oily coz I squirted it with oil to see if a wet test would throw up anything different (it didn't).

There's obviously a lot of water ingress at No.2 and a bit in No.1.  HG looks like it'd blown in several places.

What bit are you looking at? - I'll go take a closer look and photo.

Gaz

I was looking at the rusty one,might just be rust streaks :dontknow:

It's just rust marks where the neat ( :roll: ) water from the cooling system has seeped into the pot.

Was blown on 3, if not 4 of the pots  Poor little bunny.

It's being skimmed today.  Get it back tomorrow.  Yi-harrr

Gaz

Before:


And after an 11 thou 8O  skim:


Would never have seated down without it

Just need to put some time into cleaning the top of the block, then it's back together it goes

Gaz

I love the look of a freshly skimmed head  8)

There's quite a bit of erosion around the water channel in the top right of the photo - how does the block look?

Rich

It's very shiny!

That erosion corresponds to the cam end bulkhead side of the block in the first photo back on page one.  The block looks structurally sound, if rusty in the water channels.

You can see a sludged channel in the first photo and the gasket itself is also blocked in a couple of places.  These seem to be shallow 'plugs' of hard sludge rather than deep problematic areas.

Thought i'd remove as much muck as I can manually, then flush and reverse flush the system once the head's back on - but I'd be grateful for any better suggestions!

Had a new water pump not that long ago (might be a story there?), but I'm putting on a new thermostat so will check out the pump at the same time.

Gaz

All I'd like for Christmas is two daylight hours without wind or rain when I'm not at work  

It's foul outside and getting worse.  Definitely living up to my user name today

Gaz

It would make sense to lap in the valves while its all apart, too. The difference to an engine when the valves close properly is great - good compression all round, making starting really easy. For the sake of a valve spring compressor, and a bit of grinding paste, seems sensible to do now. Then you'll have a fully done top end rebuild on the engine.

I thought about it, but it had all its valve guides replaced 8,000 miles ago and the valves were re-surfaced.  They look fine, so I decided against it.

Got the car nose in my somewhat tiddly garage:
 

And I'm just popping over to Maplin to see what I can do about a brighter lead-light, then I'm going for it.

Gaz

She bangs!!!        

Oh yes 8)

Had to prime the fuel pump, but then she sparked (well okay, spluttered) into life Still got the taste of petrol in my mouth  :roll:

Won't tick over yet.  Seems to be running warm.  Took her for a trip up the by-pass and managed to keep her running at all the junctions :shock:

55mph = 3,000 revs = terrifyingly fast!!  

I'm just glad to hear her fire up.  Engine sounds all good too

Phew :wink:

Gaz