Hi guys just after some friendly advice, I've seen a car which im very interested in buying, apparently the head gasket has gone and needs replacing. Its on a Rover 25 1.8L (not my ideal car but at the price im getting it at its a steal)

Just wondering the owner said its drivable but needs to keep an eye on water levels, the drive home would be 250 miles to my home. Obviously once i had it home i'd get the timing belt and head gasket replaced including everything else probably get the internals uprated while the heads off.

My main concern is would i be able to drive the car 250 miles with a head gasket that needs replacing. I'd be very careful i.e drive down the motorway at no more than 50-60 mph all the way. Any thoughts?

if thats the k series engine you arent 'supposed' to skim the head. that engine was wet liners too. just another thing to think about. dont turn the engine over with head off! thats if it is leaking from the head. theres also a core plug at the back of the inlet manifold that used to corrode after about 10 mins. be VERY careful if replacing that sucker.

dont know if its the k series its a 2002 reg one. I wasn't going to replace the head gasket myself probably get it to a garage as soon i as i get it home, really wanted to know if its safe enough to get home.

oh in that case just take a load of water with you!
good luck.

dont touch it with a barge poll, its a rover it will tust away even if you do fix it theres a field down the road to me that was used to store brand new rovers, it floods all the time

If it's the 'performance' VVC engine it'll need the head re-engineering (I believe it has plastic inserts in the waterways) which will cost well in excess of £1k.

I was looking at buying an 1997 VVC MGTF last week for peanuts, but my mechanic explained why & added that he wouldn't even undertake the repair work as they rarely run as they did before.

Are i think you've helped me there. Its a 1.8 160 bhp engine. There so called performance ones. Man this so called steal could end up putting a huge hole in my pocket. The guy i was gonna buy it from said he was quoted £500 to fix it which i thought would be normal and at that price the cars a good deal. but at £1000+ to repair its turning into a no go area.

satty said:

Are i think you've helped me there. Its a 1.8 160 bhp engine. There so called performance ones. Man this so called steal could end up putting a huge hole in my pocket. The guy i was gonna buy it from said he was quoted £500 to fix it which i thought would be normal and at that price the cars a good deal. but at £1000+ to repair its turning into a no go area.

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I turned down the MGTF at £700 (and it had a hard top) - If this 25 is the same unit (which it sounds like it is) I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. I was quoted £1000 trade, but you'd be looking at somewhere between £1500-£2k retail. However, not many places will touch these.

The K series 1.8 is well known for it's head gasket problems. Walk away now! They'll have had it fixed before, possibly twice and will be cutting their losses. It's the engine they use in the Freelander and Discovery. There are major problems with Landrovers at the moment and because of it and they're facing a civil legal battle. As far as the engine goes, they've used steel head gaskets and nylon dowel pegs in an alloy block and this is just a couple of the major contributary factors to their problems. There are others, 15 known design faults that they also try to deny.
If you do a google search by typing in landrover head gasket problems, you'll never even think of buying one, ever!

blimey its been a while since i worked on rovers. the 1.8 was just a rumour when i left!
buy another Fiat!