as title. need it doin before MIT car otherwise i cant go in it
is its hrd to do DIY? are any special tools needed?

lol ye i believe its a rather large job and i THINK (not positive) that you will need a compression test, someone else might be able to back me up on this??

if its any consololation i got quoted £200 for my head gasket when i incorrectly thought it had gone!

you could do with a compresion test,to see if you have a cylinder leak..
but with it loosing water,overheating.and running rough..its not looking good..

big al

Agreed, sounds not good, but a compression test will confirm if it def. needs doing or not, (before you spend the money...)

compression test cost loads i heard

Compression test should not be expensive. They just screw the attachment on the tester into each sparkplug hole, one at a time, to check each of the 4 cylinders. You can even buy a compresion tester and do it yourself - they don't cost a fortune.

think i thinking of one to test the actual head so how much are they or how much would a garage cost

compression test will show up any leaking valves etc so you will have to have the head off to sort that out. then check the head for cracks and warping. if you have never done anything like this before, leave it for someone who knows what they are doing. assembly needs camshaft locking tools to replace the cambelt correctly. They can cost £100 a set
http://www.auto-tools.co.uk/s.php?p=9154

or just swap the engine,..there are plenty about in breakers yards.,compression testing is easy and cheap and can be done with the haed on,pressure checking for cracks can only be done with the head off the car.these are two different ways of checking the for compression/pressure.you could take your head off and get it pressure checked at it comes back ok ,..only to find out your bottom end/piston is cracked hence getting a compression test done first.

big al