If its not leaking externally then it must be going into the engine but check first that you dont have a split hose that will only open up when the engine is hot and the cooling system under pressure - I had this and it was difficult to trace as it kept re-sealing again

Also check your water pump with the engine hot and running - again they can re-seal when the engine stops.

If no luck there it might be worth getting a pressure test done on the cooling system

 

Hmm it's possible. Thing is though I had it running for a while after coming back from Land Rover and there was never a puddle on the floor or anything, even after I revved it up or anything.

As in the other thread, I drove to Birmingham and back yesterday, and then she took a bit of a thrashing last night for 20 miles or so :err:

Can any garage pressure test the cooling system? How much do people normally charge?

cheers
Ben

 

What does the oil look like? If coolant is leaking into the crankcase you may find your sump appears to be filled with mushroom soup!

Failing that, it may be that it only leaks externally at certain times, i.e when cooling down. This often happens with rotted coolant rails and radiators.

 

I'll open up the engine bay and see if I can see anything untoward when I get a chance (probably at the weekend now).

Oil seems ok, nothing suspicious on the dipstick or the easy access oil cap, but again when I open up the engine bay I'll check the "proper" oil cap.

cheers
Ben

 

Hi Ben,........
As said already, check oil for coolant contamination, also have a read of this thread. http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=243523 It will help you understand things a little more,..well it did for me..lol

I had coolant loss with no tell tale sign, so got the car put up on a car lift at a National Tyre Services and had a good look from underneath.The guy there was great, and didn't charge. Found dry coolant residue near to the oil filter and investigated further.
Long story short, found a lot of dry residue under the crankshaft pully.Couldn't find any wet areas even with the car running, or standing overnight so cold.No drips, but loads of tell tale signs. What I eventually did find was the corrugated pipe that houses some electric wires, under the crankshaft pully full of coolant, when I sqeezed this pipe coolant poured out, a bit like milking a cow. Pretty sure its the water pump, not 100%, but near enough.
Can you get the car to a Tyre place and get in up on a ramp,...

 

thanks for the advice dude, guess I should get it to a garage and get them to have a look, as well as pressure testing etc.

The previous owner did replace the waterpump himself, so I guess that could be a problem? I dunno.

Any ideas what would cause the engine to hesitate/run slightly lumpy? The problems surely must be connected?

cheers
Ben

 

Don't whether this helps but I have had the odd loss of coolant since I first owned my 160. It nearly always happened on short runs - long runs were fine and if it was used everyday it was also fine.

About a year ago, I fitted a low coolant alarm and have lived with the odd top-up until last week when I got Russell to fit a new head gasket (amongst other things). This was because I had run out of places to check for external leaks and had NO other signs of HGF. Oil was fine, no oil in coolant, etc,etc.

The first thing Russell did before starting work was to pressurise the system - he uses a special hand pump with a pressure gauge which comes with lots of different adaptors to fit different coolant tanks. This took about 10 mins mostly just waiting to see if the pressure dropped at all. In my case it did not. But, once the head was off, there was one area where the gasket had obviously failed. It was one of the internal waterways so I could only have been losing coolant into the cylinders and out through the exhaust.

Having said all this, yours sounds as if it is losing coolant much quicker than mine was. In this case, if coolant was going into the cylinders I think I woud expect to see steam from the exhaust at normal running temperature.

Just a thought.

Richard

 

Cheers dude, that's sort of the same thing I'm thinking tbh. The only thing that's confusing me is that I can't see any steam from the exhaust, and the rate that I was losing it I would expect steam to be POURING out lol!

I'm convinced the lumpy idle when warm and the slight hesitating is something to do with it, but my knowledge has run out lol.

I was hoping to ring a garage or my mobile mechanic today but work was far too hectic, will try and do it on Monday...

Cheers
Ben

 

WOAH!

Checked my expansion tank today and it was a fairly horrible mayo-y colour, with a lot of oil/crud floating around.

I then checked my dipstick and it was COVERED in it. It was a horrible sludgey browny creamy colour.

So, I guess thats the mystery of the disappearing coolant solved. My mobile mechanic is gonna come and whip the head off next week to see the damage, hopefully it'll just need a new gasket but it might need a skim or something aswell

Bugger. Oh well, I guess now at least I know it'll be good for a while longer (I hope!) :err:

cheers
Ben

 

Welcome to the world of K-series! Bet you wished you'd kept the diesel 'wise, now! :dddc:

HGF ain't the end of the world, really. Be sure your mechanic cheks the head for trueness before skimming it, if it hasn't overheated, chences are it won't need a skim. A lot of places seem to do it almost as part of the job when it is often unnecessary.

 

That's cool, yeah he only said it might need a skim, not that he'd definitely do it.

To be honest, I'm not that angry or disappointed. I was half expecting it, and at least now it means it won't go again. The car was such a bargain as well that either after the price of the work and the parts, it's still really good value.

Anyways, the deal I have with my mechanic is that I get parts, and he just does whatever work I need him to.

My question therefore is what is EVERYTHING that I should/might need to have done to make sure the car is tip top from now on? I'm willing to spend a bit more money and time off the road now if it means it won't have anymore coolant/oil/gasket problems for a while?

The K series is still pretty alien to me so any advice would be greatly received. I read something about better head bolts or something?

cheers
Ben

 

What's the betting the seller knew it had HGF and just changed the oil and coolant?......:eyes:



Benny, if you've got the pennies I'd do the following:

• MLS gasket
• Landrover oilrail
• Waterpump
• Expansion cap
• Stainless steel underfloor pipes
• Low coolant alarm

The above is very much a belt and braces solution that should give you years of peace of mind.

 

What's the betting the seller knew it had HGF and just changed the oil and coolant?......:eyes:

Benny, if you've got the pennies I'd do the following:

• MLS gasket
• Landrover oilrail
• Waterpump
• Expansion cap
• Stainless steel underfloor pipes
• Low coolant alarm

The above is very much a belt and braces solution that should give you years of peace of mind.

hmm yeah thats kind of what I'm thinking too. Only done 1200 miles since I bought it! Oh well...

Cheers dude, any ideas where's cheap to get the oilrail and low coolant alarm?

You should need; Head gasket (MLS jobbie i'd advise), timing belts (both ends), water pump, thermostat, inlet manifold gasket, head bolts. Complete kit here for £60 posted! :broon:

Also, the consumables; oil, oil filter, coolant (red OAT stuff).

As an additional, i'd also recommend splashing out an extra £70 or so (unsure of the going rate now) for the stainless steel underfloor coolant pipes, and checking the state of the radiator if you're planning on keeping the car for a while. May as well change these while the coolant's already drained! :broon:

There's probably stuff i've missed, but others can add if so.

cheers for the link dude, although I'd like next day delivery so may look elsewhere perhaps.

You've both mentioned the waterpump but the previous owner already changed it, should I still give it a go? I know the cambelt's been changed as well so surely I don't need to do that?

Other than longetivity are there any advantages of the stainless pipes, and again where to get them from? I may even have them already...

I've seen this kit on Rimmer Bros: http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-ZUA000530 however it seems very pricey and I don't know for sure if it fits VVC's?

Cheers for the help chaps. The engine didn't actually overheat however one time the temperature gauge did get up to ALMOST the red... does that count? :err:

cheers
Ben

 

You should need; Head gasket (MLS jobbie i'd advise), timing belts (both ends), water pump, thermostat, inlet manifold gasket, head bolts. Complete kit here for £60 posted! :broon:

Also, the consumables; oil, oil filter, coolant (red OAT stuff).

As an additional, i'd also recommend splashing out an extra £70 or so (unsure of the going rate now) for the stainless steel underfloor coolant pipes, and checking the state of the radiator if you're planning on keeping the car for a while. May as well change these while the coolant's already drained! :broon:

There's probably stuff i've missed, but others can add if so.

 

TF has an aluminium radiator so should last longer than the chassis.:lol:

 

You don't need to replace the head bolts and the oil rail is only really a nice-to-have that not many bother with for car applications (it is mainly aimed at a Freelander problem). Use only the MLS gasket from Payen or Land Rover.

Belts should be changed as a matter of course unless they have only done a couple of thousand miles.

Water pumps have a nasty habit of failing shortly after being disturbed.

 

You don't need to replace the head bolts and the oil rail is only really a nice-to-have that not many bother with for car applications (it is mainly aimed at a Freelander problem). Use only the MLS gasket from Payen or Land Rover.

Belts should be changed as a matter of course unless they have only done a couple of thousand miles.

Water pumps have a nasty habit of failing shortly after being disturbed.

That's cool, well I'm getting the gasket kit from VVC Les on here hopefully which includes everything I need.

I'm also going to to the waterpump - the cambelt was done less than 10k ago so I think I'll leave that tbh.

I already have a new coolant cap from the local Land Rover dealer, so I think I'll leave it there.

Whilst he's under there though I'll have the spark plugs, HT leads, dizzy cap and rotor arm changed as well I think. Hopefully she'll be running nicely after all that :broon:

Cheers for the help chaps.
Ben

 

Well I'm getting a full MLS gasket kit from VVC Les off here, plus I have just ordered an uprated oil rail, new waterpump, spark plugs, oil filter and fuel filter from Rimmer Bros.

Just gotta get down the local motor factors for some oil and coolant then I'm good. Assuming the head doesn't need skimming or anything then she should be running like a dream by the end of the week.

One more thing - the tappety VVC mechs, is there anything I can/should do whilst the heads off to try and sort that out?

And also, what brand/grade of oil is best for the 160 engine?

cheers
Ben

 

One more thing - the tappety VVC mechs, is there anything I can/should do whilst the heads off to try and sort that out?

And also, what brand/grade of oil is best for the 160 engine?

The choices for solving the VVC rattle are

• Oil change with good quality 10w/40 (typically magnatech or equivalent)
• New Head and mechs.........

Oil - see above.:lol:

Commonly a good oil change reduces the rattle significantly.

 

Update time:

Thanks to a combination of VVC Les and Rimmer Bros, I now have in my posession:

MLS Gasket Kit
Uprated Oil Rail
New Waterpump
Oil Filter
Fuel Filter
4 x spark plugs
New sump plug washer

Now just need to get down the local motorfactors and get some oil and coolant - the mechanic is coming to sort her out later in the week (he was planning on coming today/tomorrow but had a couple of priority jobs that need doing )

Under the mechanic's guidance I might also get a new cambelt. Mine was done only a few k ago but he said replacing it might be worth a look into anyway, even if its just purely the belt and not the whole kit.

I might do, depends on weather the motorfactors have them and nhow much they are, I'm running a bit low on pennies now! :lol:

cheers
Ben

 

Well the head needs skimming, as its slightly warped. Apparently there is some very fresh copper grease on it so he reckons the gasket went, the previous owner did a bodge job and then whacked the car up for sale.

Oh well, for the preice I got the car for I can't complain really.

Head's getting skimmed tonight, then tomorrow its getting refitted. I'm also picking up a new cambelt from euro car parts tonight.

Here's hoping that after all this is done it'll be running nicely for a long while!

 

Glad to see you know whats going on now, and hope its all sorted soon!!

 

How long you had a TF lol ?

Still got to fit all of the above to my peice-o-crap F.

I got a Gates Timing Belt and Pre-tensioner kit VERY cheap through J&M Speed our MERSEYSIDE MEET Sponsor, I recomend one and NGK Platinum Plugs.

Low Coolent Alarm is a great investment too, shame you have a TF as I found a cracking little mod for the Mk1 F in regards to the alarm !

 

thanks chaps. Well the head is now back on and it's getting timed up with the new belt. The oil rail is going in after that before the filters and spark plugs get changed too.

Hopefully by later on this evening she'll be running nicely again, although it's about a week later than I had hoped!


Shall I take it easy for a few hundred miles to let the new gasket bed in?

The old one was a crappy original one and one of the plastic/rubber bits had broken away. The sump is full of water at the moment :err: Whoever did it had used copper grease as well, that can't be right surely?!

 

Glad you have stuck with it and sorted it - just need to ensure the bleeding is done correctly as it will go again straight away (like mine did )

 

well she's running beautifully again now, and she sounds a lot smoother too!

Fired up first turn after it all got put back together so I'm feeling confident.

What do you mean by bled correctly? You mean the coolant? It's all good but my mechanic reckons as there was so much water in the sump I should flush and replace the coolant again in about 500 miles to make sure all the oil and crap is out of the water system.

Does that make sense?

 

Put 80 miles or so on her this evening going to see Senna in Bath with my sister.

There's still a bit of water in the sump so it was a little mis-firey on the way there, but seemed a lot smoother on the way home after hopefully evaporating most of the excess water away.

There's also a bit of a whirring/whining noise from the cambelt, which gets louder and higher pitched as you rev it. I'm hoping that this will gradually go away whilst the belt gets bedded in, if not then I may need to get the belt loosened off slightly. Not really sure.

Haven't taken it above 3000rpm yet, will give it a few hundred miles before I venture up near the top end of the rev range :broon:

 

There's still a bit of water in the sump so it was a little mis-firey on the way there, but seemed a lot smoother on the way home after hopefully evaporating most of the excess water away.

There's also a bit of a whirring/whining noise from the cambelt, which gets louder and higher pitched as you rev it.

If there is still water in the sump sitting on top of the oil get it flushed out and changed pronto!

A whining cambelt is a sure sign of it being too tight, not too loose.

 

A noisy belt is usually caused by being too slack or being wet.

 

really? Hmm perhaps I should take a look then...

Anybody know how to check weather it's tight enough or not lol

 

I run my 200 with a mixture of water, coolent and Percil clothing detergent for a couple hundred miles, then flushed it and run it with pure water for a couple of trips to work then replaced it with fresh coolent, not a sign of HGF !

Smelt nice too !