My Marea 1.8 16v has developed an external oil leakage, which appears to come from the head gasket right at the corner next to no. 4 cylinder exhaust manifold.

I urgently need to know whether the gaskets have rubber O rings in way of the oil galley ports.

If yes, I can try Leaklock and see if it stops helps.

A swift reply will be highly appreciated.

Anyone any idea??

Are there rubber inserts in the holes for oil galleys or is it just plain gasket material?

Sorry, no idea. Could you get a look at a gasket in a motor factors?

The problem is that the local dealers do not have it in stock. It will have to be ordered upon request.

I'm sure someone out there has replaced the gasket once and has the answer. The question is to get him/her reading this thread.........

Hy,

Is indeed one plain gasket. No rubber rings anywere. Sorry

Means you have to take the cilinderhead completely off. And if you do so, maybe replace the distribution as well. (couple of more Euro's, but all is open anyway)

O Nederlands,,duhhh mail me maar dennispolman en dan apestaartje ziggo.nl

Thanks for your response.

It seems that Leaklock won't work then.

I am thinking about a last resort: re-torqueing the cylinder head.

This seems to have worked on other cars in some cases. Some manufacturers recommend it for some engine types. Any one tried this before?

Problem is that the bolts are stretch bolts meaning that they should only be used once. The tightening sequence is 20 Nm+40Nm+90 degrees+90 degrees+90 degrees. Actually they shouldn't go loose as the bolts have been stretched into their plastic range.

This procedure does not indicate a final torque level which I can check.

My head gasket has been renewed 100.000 kms (7 years) ago. I'm not quite sure whether the garage doing this job renewed the bolts at that time (they should have but you never know). Perhaps the bolt next to the leak did goe loose or the gasket has lost its resilience. Could be a slight warp in the head of course.

For the rest, there are no internal leakages so this oil sweating is the only issue at this stage.

The leakage is next to no.4 exhaust manifold ie. at the right bottom corner in the pic below. As you can see in there is a bolt right next to the oil galley causing the leakage.

Any advices will be highly appreciated.

This query has been shifted to a new thread.

https://www.fiatforum.com/marea/294444-re-torqueing-cylinder-head-1-8-16v-elx.html