MG-Rover.org Forums banner

Help please, head gasket advise

1.2K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  Quintin  
#1 ·
Hi everyone,

It's been a while since i posted a thread.

So, i need some expert advise here, about a week ago i noted mayo like stuff in the header thank , and small bloches of oil floating on the surface of the coolant. I am suspecting the first stages of an HGF, athough the engine runs ok , not boiling , and temperature is always about half way the gauge, and coolant levels are always constant also.

How long will it go before the gasket fails totaly?

By the way, the engine is a vvc and it is driven alway to the limit, since it is a Rover 200 vi hill climb car, prattically, always to the rev limit.

Will the engine take one more spanking , so at least i finish half the season , before we have our summer break??

Thanks in advance for your precios advise.
 
#2 ·
Hi everyone,

It's been a while since i posted a thread.

So, i need some expert advise here, about a week ago i noted mayo like stuff in the header thank , and small bloches of oil floating on the surface of the coolant. I am suspecting the first stages of an HGF, athough the engine runs ok , not boiling , and temperature is always about half way the gauge, and coolant levels are always constant also.

How long will it go before the gasket fails totaly?

By the way, the engine is a vvc and it is driven alway to the limit, since it is a Rover 200 vi hill climb car, prattically, always to the rev limit.

Will the engine take one more spanking , so at least i finish half the season , before we have our summer break??

Thanks in advance for your precios advise.

You HG has gone, it has failed (from the discription you discribe) I would not put much hope of finishing the half season. You can chance it, but i suspect that the HG may let go and dump all the coolant in the sump.

It sould only take a couple of hours to do, besides it may save you the hassle of completly flushing the mayo from the engine.

perks68
 
#4 ·
You,re getting me worried ,
Image
will it last for another 6 hour driving? to get to race event i need 30 min slow driving or so then 4 runs of less than a minute and back home again. And then maybe a 15 min non competition run the Sunday after.
I will not mamage to get the head done for Sunday surely, i cannot take time off from work.
What do you think ?
Should i risk it?
The Mayo is not advers as some of the pictures i saw, in fact the coolant is still transparent, only small bloches of oil maybe 15mm in diameter and some sludge on the side of the header tank. I have had the car for two years ,and the header thank was never that clean, i suspect that before i bought it , it had a head gasket change ,because i found some receipts indicating this.
 
#3 ·
Perks is right...

If you have oil in the coolant the head gasket has already failed. Anymore time running the engine will potentially be causing further damage, therefore it's important that you get it fixed now. If I were you, I certainly wouldn't be doing any hill climbs with a sick engine.

Regards,
Ian.
 
#5 · (Edited)
hi, if it is the head gasket.. which it sounds like it could be.

with that kind of use.. may I sugest you go for the more expensive XPart Kit? if you do the repair.

it is more expensive, but it has the oil rail, which will make the engine block marginally stronger.

and it also has uprated higher tensile bolts that provide a better clamping force on the gasket.. as well as the new MLS gasket which is a further development of the land rover one.

but if you do go for that option.. wait until you have the engine in bits as you may need the elastomer type if the liner heights are on the low/flush side.

in which case, just get the land rover oil rail, and payen elastomer gasket and new standard bolts.

oil rail will help, especially with the bolts and MLS gasket if your liners wil allow for it, to prevent it failing again under that kind of use.

the risk is yours to take, but the problem with running it like that is if it gets to a point where the water is being lost at a rate where it will get too low, that can cause the block/head to soften then its scrap... non VVC heads which hve gone soft popular to contrary belief can be repair (and i dont mean by a quick skim.. theres a company that machines out a groove in the head and puts in a hardened insert) BUT they cannot do this on the VVC engine because the bowl in the head where the valves sit is larger in diamater to a normal k series engine.. so this repair wouldnt even be possible in your case.. so scrap head.

blocks though cannot be repaired at all, so if they go and liners sink below the surface or go uneven.. thats game over for the engine.

also.. with any kind of water in the oil? what do you think that will do to the lubricating properties of the oil? in the crank journals, and camshaft bearings.
 
#6 ·
hi, if it is the head gasket.. which it sounds like it could be.

with that kind of use.. may I sugest you go for the more expensive XPart Kit? if you do the repair.

it is more expensive, but it has the oil rail, which will make the engine block marginally stronger.

and it also has uprated higher tensile bolts that provide a better clamping force on the gasket.. as well as the new MLS gasket which is a further development of the land rover one.

but if you do go for that option.. wait until you have the engine in bits as you may need the elastomer type if the liner heights are on the low/flush side.

in which case, just get the land rover oil rail, and payen elastomer gasket and new standard bolts.

oil rail will help, especially with the bolts and MLS gasket if your liners wil allow for it, to prevent it failing again under that kind of use.

the risk is yours to take, but the problem with running it like that is if it gets to a point where the water is being lost at a rate where it will get too low, that can cause the block/head to soften then its scrap... non VVC heads which hve gone soft popular to contrary belief can be repair (and i dont mean by a quick skim.. theres a company that machines out a groove in the head and puts in a hardened insert) BUT they cannot do this on the VVC engine because the bowl in the head where the valves sit is larger in diamater to a normal k series engine.. so this repair wouldnt even be possible in your case.. so scrap head.

blocks though cannot be repaired at all, so if they go and liners sink below the surface or go uneven.. thats game over for the engine.

also.. with any kind of water in the oil? what do you think that will do to the lubricating properties of the oil? in the crank journals, and camshaft bearings.
Thanks for your advise.

I am going to risk it, this morning I bought a bottle of rad weld and i am going to poor it in, i know it is useless but i need to finish the race, if it helps just a bit thats ok, and i will keep my i on the temp and oil pressure bulb, the race is only round 50 sec so it will not be long.
When I will open the engine i will fit new Bolts and the MLS gasket , i will be only using the engine till the end of the season this year.
For next year i will be preparing a full racing engine, i have A 1.8 k-series out of an elise have throttle boddies for it, emerald, con rods, a vvc head, forged pistons etc etc , so its not worth spending a lot of money on this engine.
 
#7 ·
Luckily my headgasket survived the race, and i have only oil in the header tank, and the oil was never contaminated with water. Now its time to change the head gasket, but i need some help.

Now that i am taking off the head , I am goin to shave of a bit to increase compression and do some port work, now i am not sure what head gasket to choose, either the MLS from payen or else, the competiton gasket offered by elise parts.
I know that the MLS is very good , but I do not know anything about the competition gasket.
Did anybody use this gasket?