2003 Mk 2 Fiat Punto 1.2 16V Active Sport, Head Gasket problems.


So we bought this car just over a year ago with less than 45K on the clock, unbeknown to us the head gasket had gone (dodgy seller covered it up) The coolant was heavily contaminated with oil but it was running fine on test drive.


Anyway I got a mechanic friend to strip the head and flush the cooling system clean, the head went back on with a new gasket and head bolts (we didn’t skim it as it looked straight against a rule) just over a year and 16k miles its run with no issues, we really get on well with it but it has just started playing up again now, it runs a little lumpy from cold start up and has used a bit of coolant. A sniff test confirms combustion gasses in the cooling system.


I’m going to get it stripped again and this time skimmed but are there any other things we should change whilst at it this time? Obviously cam belt, what about water pump, any tenstioners, anything else? Can we reuse the head bolts?


Or am I just wasting my time? I mean the head gaskets gone once already, although we didn’t skim it, just replaced the gasket.


Your advice and recommendations welcome


Thanks

No you are not wasting your time if you like the car.
Use new bolts.
Use a decent quality head gasket, elring or similar.
Skim head.
Get cam belt kit that has belt , tensioner and pump in- cheaper than buying separately.

jackwhoo said:

No you are not wasting your time if you like the car.
Use new bolts.
Use a decent quality head gasket, elring or similar.
Skim head.
Get cam belt kit that has belt , tensioner and pump in- cheaper than buying separately.

Click to expand...

Good Info ... And please torque accordingly. The head gasket doesn't need sealant but you need sealant for the cover. I learned this through mistake and have to replace the head gasket twice.

Headgasket self seals as u torque it down
No goo or other product allowed
Block has to be perfectly clean as well
The head should be skimmed
All it take is small gap and itll mix or burn

Id do a compression test to see where its going

Ziggy

I personally don't think it's worth skimming the head if it looks flat against a good straight edge.

make sure the head bolts are tightened in the right sequence, the right way to the correct torque.

I would replace belts at the same time for all they cost. Make sure all debris from old gasket is cleaned off well

Well if you have a precision engineered straight edge you can check it yourself, but they are very expensive.
So for a few pounds it's worth taking to machine shop and getting them to check it and skim if necessary.

Doesn't need to be precision engineered. Just needs to be "reasonable", a standard steel rule will do.

The gasket takes up a lot of the uneveness. It's not an ultra high vacuum seal with knife edge seals. Have a look at the surface roughness from the original milling.

It really depends on how much time / money you have.

sorry to disagree but a steel rule is not a suitable tool due to its flexible nature , I have tried this method .
I haven't checked warpage limit for this engine but A normal warpage limit is around 0.03mm or roughly 0.0012 inch or 1.2 thousands of an inch.
Even the slightest flex curve in a steel rule renders measuring to this tolerance impossible.
My thought is , which is cheaper ? doing the job once properly (asking machine shop to measure and only if needed head skim , maybe nothing to measure or cost of a pint of beer)
Or doing it twice , paying for two head gaskets , possibly two sets of head bolts, paying for it to be skimmed and twice length of time.

Use the rule on edge, it's not flexible that way