Club 80-90 Forums

hi,sorry to post this on here but ...your my only friends

daughters headgasket went the other day and have water in the oil syndrome..got the head skimmed and just waiting for the headset and bolts to drop though the letterbox....was just wondering the best way to rid the engine of the water in the oilways without too many oil changes..if you get me
will new oil and some engine flush do it in one go or not?
thanks dave

Air blast down them? I used an inflated balloon to do it on a bike engine once!

We used to use a mix of 60/40 Diesel and engine oil to flush the milky stuff away, but you may have to give a couple of goes to clear it.


Regards


Fritz.............

thanks guys...i think i might try the diesel/oil one...you just saturate the oilways with it and drain off then? i can get most of it out before putting the head on then (this is right is it?)

You should of said before the weekend I could of brought along some engine flush from work...as many as you like, it free if you know what I mean
It would of helped to get rid of most of it..
IAN

Get what you can out then do the diesel mix as fritz says. An old wet vacuum can be used to get the majority of it out. I did the same on a clio, been driven for about a week with known head gasket gone then sat for 6 months curdling, ended up stripping the whole cooling system out and getting the local machine shop to put it in their hot wash tank for a spell. Both my mums mgf's have gone at about 35k and done the diesel trick and did the job better than flushing oil.

how did you know it was a k-series damien..thats spooky
ian mate..i never even thought about it till i took the head off..my own head was all full up with camping
ill have a crack at it tomoz with the diesel thing and get the compressor on the job and ill let you all know how i got on...i can see me getting a mouthfull at some point tho

Is it a 1.8L? get the landrover freelander spec gasket.. its supposed to be tougher as the engine has a hard life in the freely... Dont know for sure, could be a red herring...

I'm trying to remember if they have wet liners... if so.. its important to make sure they are in the correct position reletive to the top of the block.. (might be a different engine I am thinking of though...) as they can move up and down with the piston and punch into the head gasket causing it to leak again in another 30k....

its the 1.4 8v si..they do have wet liners but when you set the engine correctly and you take the head off the bottom end goes real tight and you cant move the pistons..if you do manage to move it then you throw up a liner,not good.
its only just to last her another year at the most before she gets something decent..twas just a first year car thing.got it moted a couple of weeks ago and she went to london in it (i got homesick at ollerton roundabout the first year of my driving )and got AA'd back from the m1.just need it to last a year

Well 9 out fo 10 times i've heard of a head gasket its been a k series. Freelander head gasket were specced with steel dowels, slightly different multi layer gasket too, most replacement ones now are supplied that way anyway. Its almost becoming part of a service for some people. Can see why with the smear of silicone for sealing.......

Liners are loose fitted as long as all pistons are level (in the correct "locked" position) they wont move, unless engine gets turned over. Don't drop the bolts down the holes lower them gently!!

Hope you have more room around engine than i did, when i asked the local garage they drop the engine out on mgf's to do head work as its quicker.............

At least you miss the twin cam pulleys that can go on 4 different ways......

Yeah, now imagine when its turning at 4000rpm.. if the liner isnt "trapped" (being held into its seat in the block by the head and gasket) then it can move up and down, only a tiny amount but enough to punch into the gasket and down into the block.. they suffer'd badly when they first came out when the tuning boys started doing there stuff to them... it quickly reared its ugly head... I reckon most repeat gaskets are caused by this.. a tiny skim of the block is prob the only cure.. which of course, rarely gets done..

i had that when i had a 216 with the pulleys...the head went..or so i thought but it wasnt so.it was spewing steam out the exhaust so i thought it was the gasket.took the head off,skimmed,pressure tested(coz i really liked that car)when i went to pick it up the guy said he had noticed corrosion on the intake side right next to number 1 where a water pipe goes in...turns out it was a 10p 0-ring that had gone and was spewing water into number 1 pot

The pulleys are a mare, just have to remember to get cam's at 10:00 and 2:00 postitions.

The landy type gasket is slightly thicker on the bore sealing rings to help with that problem. My mums were done at approx 35k on both cars, one of hers got sold other has now done over 80k with no trouble.

everyone slags these engines off but apart from the issues with the head gasket i think they are a really punchy little engine and if it lasts another year ill be well chuffed.

From my understanding, the weakness was with the head gasket itself and the later 'modded' replacements pretty much cure the problem.
Martin