General Head Gasket?

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General Head Gasket?

ottiian

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Hey, I also posted the problem on the dashboard buzzer, but:

just looked on my oil filler cap and there is the mayonaise type stuff, AND there is a lot of oil in my water.

I don't think its due to condensation (y wud there e oil in the water?) but the car seems to be running fine, has enough power (will reach 85) and there isn't any excess smoke.

The only thing it will do is cut out when idling after being run a little from cold (e.g. at traffic lights). No warning, just conk!

so do u think it is my head gasket?

if so, how much should I expect to pay for it to be fixed
(mines a Seat Marbella 900 '93)?

cheers,
ian
 
Is it really oil? Or stuff like Radweld, which leaves a slightly oily look about the coolant IME.

I can't guess what would cause the stopping unexpectedly when cold..

But there is a useful link here about head gasket failure (for the Cinq, with the other engine, but a good guide regardless.

I don't know a garage cost for the job, but IME it's as easy a head to work on as any, and you don't need any fancy tools beyond the basics (spanners and screwdriver or two) except for a feeler gauge and torque wrench.
The cost of the tools will almost certainly be less than a garage job, and you can use the tools again....
 
Hi Ian.
Sounds like a head problem. If you can DIY it would cost about £40 to £60 in parts, gaskets, oil, filter, etc and around £40 to skim the head. A garage will add on the labour, say 4hrs, depending on where you are £30-40 an hour.


Russ
 
What about water's and oil's level[:0][?]

Passion has neither brands nor models!

La passione non ha nè marche nè modelli!
 
Its possible that the way you use the car can cause emulsion in the cylinder head (short journeys, never getting to operating temps etc). The killer is if you have oil in the water as well and if it overheats.

Dave
 
Ian - I'm redoing the head gasket on a 1000 Fire IE. Symptoms were:
1 - started to miss while driving on the highway. No visible signs of problems.
2 - heater stopped working
3 - no coolant in the cooling system
4 - over heating
5 - started to smoke
6 - added water, it was consumed. Then, on the way to the dealership, it stopped would not start again.
This all took two days to happen, 1->3 first day, 4->6 second.
When I changed the oil, after the car sat for a 2 days, the water was in the oil sump and was the first thing to shloosh out when the plug was removed.
Yes, there was mayo inside but just a touch on the oil filler cap, more inside than I'd expect.
You could change the oil, that would confirm if you have coolant in the engine where it shouldn't be.
Auguste
 
so is a blown headgasket a kind of sudden event?
cos ive been running the car for over 1000 miles now with cream stuff in water and oil deposits in tank, it never overheats, the heater works fine after about 5mins from cold, and its not losing power or misfiring. And just checked the oil today, its used none in about 200 miles.
I'm beginning to wonder if te previous owner fixed the gasket for MOT emissions - just passed when bought and genuine (the radiator is missing two bolts and the air filter has a bolt missing) but didn't bother with flushing coolant.
The car seems to run too well for anything major to have gone wrong - fourth gear 50-70 is amazing for its size!

thanks for input
 
Yup - I'd wonder about where the "contamination" came from and clean it up, but it doesn't sound like the problems I had. That lead me to the garage pretty quickly.
Auguste
 
well I replaced the head gasket yesterday, cause the car had developed a thirst for oil and water. And after sitting at the lights and literally a plume of smoke engulfed all the other cars.

I've just adjusted valve clearances today and the engine sounds the best its ever had.

But, cold starting is now terrible. It just about fires, but feels as though its misfiring (juddering) and needs a lot of gas to stop it and now takes minutes to warm up. Is this now a consequence of the head acrtually being cooled properly, or isn't the thermostat supposed to prevent this? Could it be the thermostat?

I have the twin coil, no distributer version of a marbella (cat). I did take off the battery for 6 hours and it must have reset. (when first starting I could hear the engine kind of revving up, then dropping, repeating eventually getting closer to normal idle speed, I assume the ecu was relearning everything). With this system, is the ignition timing automatically adjusted for you? Or could the whole bad starting thing be down to the ecu, and clear up?

I have checked everthing obvious, all leads etc.

Any advice pls! thanx
Ian
 
Originally posted by ottiian
well I replaced the head gasket yesterday, cause the car had developed a thirst for oil and water. And after sitting at the lights and literally a plume of smoke engulfed all the other cars.

I've just adjusted valve clearances today and the engine sounds the best its ever had.

But, cold starting is now terrible. It just about fires, but feels as though its misfiring (juddering) and needs a lot of gas to stop it and now takes minutes to warm up. Is this now a consequence of the head acrtually being cooled properly, or isn't the thermostat supposed to prevent this? Could it be the thermostat?

I have the twin coil, no distributer version of a marbella (cat). I did take off the battery for 6 hours and it must have reset. (when first starting I could hear the engine kind of revving up, then dropping, repeating eventually getting closer to normal idle speed, I assume the ecu was relearning everything). With this system, is the ignition timing automatically adjusted for you? Or could the whole bad starting thing be down to the ecu, and clear up?

I have checked everthing obvious, all leads etc.

Any advice pls! thanx
Ian

AIUI the ignition timing is dependent on a pickup and markings in the edge of the alternator drive belt, and as such aren't adjustable.

My ECU (which is the Bosch jetronic - fuel only system) also does the learning thing after a battery disconnection, and it does take a while to get itself sorted out. But the thing that seems to alter most is the time it takes to reach tickover speed on releasing the throttle. (It's quicker when it's "learned").

There is a recent thread on this part of the forum regarding Augustes Panda, which is similar in specification to yours:
his problems after the gasket change were the plug leads.

Have a look under the bonnet in the dark (maybe with the airbox off) and see if you have sparks all over the place:D

Warm up time is a function of ambient temperature, heaviness of right foot, and how leaky the thermostat is.
This (V. cold here) weather my Panda seems to take 5 miles or more to get up to the 70 degree mark, and 87ish degrees or so is not always reached in the next 5 miles of urban driving as long as the traffic is moving reasonably.
The thermostat is just over a year old:(
 
Yup - the plug leads shorting out was a real problem - I think due to their age there are very small cracks in the part that pushes over the plug shaft. A good bit of black tape fixed them.

But, John H pointed out a few things:

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1, Disconnect ECU or battery for some minutes.
2, Restore connection.
3, Start engine and without touching accelerator, allow to run until cooling fan cuts in.
4, Test drive, attempting to simulate all normal driving conditions.
5, This should re-program the ECU, adjusting the carburation to suit the age and wear of the engine.
6, This proceedure serves to stabilize the settings and to minimize the time required to return to normal tick over speed on the release of the accelerator

That really helped and after resetting the plug leads and doing the above, all was good! Be sure that the sensors are all hooked up and mounted correctly.
Auguste
 
forgot to mention: my marbella has a manual choke as well as the ecu to control mixture (as its cat).

Any ideas on how to let the ecu do its stuff after reset? The car needs choke to start, which increases idle speed (by giving a bit of gas). And as part of the reset procedure, I musn't touch the gas? Perhaps bad starting is because the ecu has learnt to adjust mixture on full choke, and won't give any more when I need it at cold start up?

thanx in advance
 
Oh! I'd forgotten it was the Marbella..:I

Anyway, the bit of information which got lost along the way somewhere is that you warm it up until the fan trips in first, this is prior to step one above.
 
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