head gasket

cena

was talking to some guy today. he asked me if the head gasket had gone on my punto 02 mk2 yet as it has nearly 92,000 on the clock. i told it hadn't yet. he was saying i shoould get it done soon before it goes.

what i want to know is can you replace the gasket before it goes.
what would it cost to get it done.

peasant

You can, theoretically ...but why would you?

The head gasket is not really meant to be a serviceable item like the timing belt or the fanbelt. If everything is working as it should, leave well enough alone.

omb0wyn5ehpij9

Don't get it done until it actually needs to be changed! It could be a long time before it actually goes!

cena

i'v never had a days trouble with it yet. my mother had it before me and she crashed it twice.

omb0wyn5ehpij9

cena wrote: »

i'v never had a days trouble with it yet. my mother had it before me and she crashed it twice.

Well then, no point in spending money on a head gasket when it doesn't need to be done

bushy...

cena wrote: »

was talking to some guy today. he asked me if the head gasket had gone on my punto 02 mk2 yet as it has nearly 92,000 on the clock. i told it hadn't yet. he was saying i shoould get it done soon before it goes.

what i want to know is can you replace the gasket before it goes.
what would it cost to get it done.

Not punto specific but : It depends on why they go ( maybe the gasket rots ? , maybe the original ones are made of a sheet of lasagne ? ) .

If you do it before it goes , the head will just need a clean-up ( valve job too while it off too maybe ) and back on again.
If you leave it until it pops , you may not notice it until it has got hot enough to do more damage , warping/damaging head etc

Some heads ( depends on the alloy its made from ) loose some of their "toughness" after getting very hot , leading to a scrap head.
For added joy when you go off and find a replacement good head , it might push the cylinder liners down into the engine slightly , making it not grip the gasket as tightly where its most needed , leading to another failure.

masseyno9

I'm guessing its a 1.2 16v engine?
I have a bravo with the same engine, just had to have my head gasket done...but that turned into an engine change after the mechanic took a look at the innards of the engine. Basically the head had been skimmed before (badly) and skimming it again would lead to valves and stuff hitting things the shouldn't. Engine change wasn't much more expensive though: €250 for scrapped engine + €550 labour -v- €600 all in for head gasket job.

Anyway, back to your issue. With 92k and it not gone yet, Keep an eye/ear out for any signs of it going. Its a known issue with this engine. Gurgling noise like water behind the dash on start-up means air bubble in cooling system....can lead to air-lock, which will lead to overheating, which will damage gasket and accelerate wear. I learned this the hard way after hearing the noise for a month. Check for mayonaise looking stuff in/under your oil filler cap. This is a sign of water and oil mixing, which means head gasket failing.

Don't bother getting it done yet. Wait until it goes. It'll cost the same anyway. Has the timing belt been done? if not I'd be tempted to say to leave it until the gasket blows and do the lot together. Belt will have to come off anyway when doing the gasket. Check the tension on the belt to be sure though, if its loose it may have slipped and could do more damage.

cena

yeah got the timing belt done already.

hopalong_ie

masseyno9 - If your mechanic changed your entire engine because the head was skimmed badly and you wouldn't be able to skim it again but there was no damage to the block itself such as the pistons then you were screwed, A good second hand head could have been got from a scrap yard for 50euro assuming he does a bit of business with one. Then again he was screwing you by charging 600 to change the head gasket on a Punto anyway.

Dirty_Diesel

cena wrote: »

what i want to know is can you replace the gasket before it goes.

If you wanted some piece of mind you could get the thermostat changed and the coolant system drained and the rad cleaned out. There is 6 years of gunk flowing around it at the moment and if it ever caused a blockage in the rad you would definately be needing a new head gasket (or head)!

Ferris

I wouldn't change a head gasket unless it wouldn't need to be done. Puntos do have a reputation for it tho but I know a guy who put 180k on one with no engine problems.

Head gasket life is determined by a lot of things, how the cooling system is maintained, how you drive your car and the engines design. Generally driving the nuts out of an engine that has a history of blowing gaskets will cause it to blow.

The GF has a rover 214 which is well known for blowing its head but she drives it easy and sensibly and the car is fine.

ART6

If it ain't broke don't fix it;)

blackbox

Dirty_Diesel wrote: »

If you wanted some piece of mind you could get the thermostat changed and the coolant system drained and the rad cleaned out. There is 6 years of gunk flowing around it at the moment and if it ever caused a blockage in the rad you would definately be needing a new head gasket (or head)!

+1

The head gasket should not fail unless something else goes wrong, such as: -
- corrosion due to coolant not being changed,
- blockages due to build-up in coolant,
- failure of the thermostat or water pump,
- cooling system leak,
- low oil level causing overheating (aargh) or old oil
- low coolant level.

Bobo78

I drive a Rover 45 at the moment. And i had to get my head gasket replaced last December. Replacing the head gasket cost me 320 euro which wasn't that bad. I d say you wouldn't need to replace the head gasket if it s not leaking. Similar case was with my car last November and December the car was working fine and engine wasn't overheating or anything. But there was mayo in the coolant tank and i knew that the head gasket was leaking so i just got it replaced before it was gone completely.
I d recommend you to check for any signs of head gasket leaking before you decide to do anything.
If there is mayo in the coolant tank or on the oil filer cap, it s definitive that the head gasket is leaking so it is worth replacing it before it actually blows and engine overheats and then you are looking at more expensive repair.

blackbox

Bobo78 wrote: »

I drive a Rover 45 at the moment. And i had to get my head gasket replaced last December. Replacing the head gasket cost me 320 euro which wasn't that bad. I d say you wouldn't need to replace the head gasket if it s not leaking. Similar case was with my car last November and December the car was working fine and engine wasn't overheating or anything. But there was mayo in the coolant tank and i knew that the head gasket was leaking so i just got it replaced before it was gone completely.
I d recommend you to check for any signs of head gasket leaking before you decide to do anything.
If there is mayo in the coolant tank or on the oil filer cap, it s definitive that the head gasket is leaking so it is worth replacing it before it actually blows and engine overheats and then you are looking at more expensive repair.

Sometimes you can get that mayonnaise gunk on the oil filler cap if the engine isn't running hot enough to evapourate the water due to a faulty or absent thermostat or doing short runs only.

Garage will be able to test for exhaust in the coolant (chemical indicator) if you suspect a leak.

Rover K-series engines got a bad rep for warping cylinder heads, but I believe the root cause was overheating rather than a fault in the head or gasket.

Bobo78

Actually when i noticed this problem last year, there was no mayo in the oil filer cap there was only mayo in the coolant tank, actually it was only on the upper sides of the coolant tank and then after a while mayo just started appearing more and more when eventually was mixed with the actual coolant in the tank so i just got the gasket replaced and now it seems to be fine no problems at all (touch wood).
Funny thing is that everyone says how Rover is a bad car with bad reliability but in my 2 years of ownership i didn't had any problems at all except this head gasket failure which was sorted easily and not too expensive. But the car which i had before this one (Volkswagen Polo) was an absolute crap which was braking down every 10 days and had to go the garage to get it fixed under warranty. When eventually engine was busted and needed replacement.
I m still surprised how Volkswagen cars are so overrated and so expensive when they don't provide much quality and reliability as they did before.

masseyno9

hopalong_ie wrote: »

masseyno9 - If your mechanic changed your entire engine because the head was skimmed badly and you wouldn't be able to skim it again but there was no damage to the block itself such as the pistons then you were screwed, A good second hand head could have been got from a scrap yard for 50euro assuming he does a bit of business with one. Then again he was screwing you by charging 600 to change the head gasket on a Punto anyway.

It wasn't just because of that, I just wasn't bothered typing the whole lot out. All sorts of things were out of line in the engine. He showed me the bits and while everything could have been changed/fixed independently, it worked out easier to just get the new engine.

Just out of interest, what would you say a fair price is to change the head gasket, including skimming, on a bravo 1.2?

keos

I've a rover 216 and it looks like the head gasket is gone... I checked with a garage and they've quoted me about 1500 which I think is huge...
Can anyone recommend a garage in Galway?

thanks!

Bobo78

I know a garage in Limerick that can fix the head gasket on Rover's for approximately 350 to 400 euro. It all depends whether it needs only gasket change or whether needs head skimmed and the gasket changed.
Mine cost me 320 euro for the new gasket set, new oil and oil filter, new coolant, new t-belt (just the belt) and the labor.

dutchcat

keos wrote: »

I've a rover 216 and it looks like the head gasket is gone... I checked with a garage and they've quoted me about 1500 which I think is huge...
Can anyone recommend a garage in Galway?

thanks!

cant recommend a garage ,but get a second opinion 216 has a honda engine which is unburstable ,except if massivley overheated due to waterpump failure burst rad etc,not to be confused with 214 k series engine good luck.............