To start hi all

was wondering if you guys on here could help i have a mint condition mk1 punto but it has just started showing sign's of head gasket failure but the wierd thing is that the heater works fine no mayo at the sump only has mayo at the oil cap and loseing water quick just not shure if it is head gasket or not

thanks peter

Is it overheating?

If loosing water, likely places are the water rail on the front of the block and the water pump.

Only definitive way to check head gasket is a compression test or a coolant pressurisation test.

Gah.. was eating pizza and forgot to wipe fingers before posting a reply:doh:

Anyways, another sign in a layer of oil in the expansion tank on top of the coolent

- another sign, if you doing motorway trips, there will be lack of power at higher speeds, i.e slow to pick up from 60-70mph. Top speed will also be reduced - some cases

Another sign is white liquid type stuff on the dip stick when the engine has been left - i.e not after running

I have a thread on here - excessive coolent pressure , or something along those lines, it has more info on HG

Hope this helps

hi no the car dosen't over heat no sign of leak anywhere i dont use the car alot i filled the coolant level up to max 1 morning next it is at min

oil is clean on dip stick only has mayo at the oil cap

pedro1701e said:

hi no the car dosen't over heat no sign of leak anywhere i dont use the car alot i filled the coolant level up to max 1 morning next it is at min

Click to expand...

Sounds like air then to me

recently done a anti-freeze refresh after a Clip was leaking on the mk2

But its the same - once i had car running coolant level fine - fan worked fine - no overheating

However later on in the day - it'd cooled and the fluid level had dropped to min
Topped it up and its fine

open the bleed valves and let the air out - Wait till cool and top fluid up
again

keep a regular check on the coolant level
Ziggy

Oh yeah, another sign - and you may need to know you may not get any of these or some of these etc, they all depend on how the HG fails

- If you give the car a boot full from standstill you may get aload of white smoke/steam out the back - this only happerned the once for mine as the coolent level didn't continuosly drop - HG disstorted on clyinder 1&4

Compression test. Only fools change head gaskets for the fun of it.............

pedro1701e said:

oil is clean on dip stick only has mayo at the oil cap

Click to expand...

Its common this time of year
i again have the same thing HG is fine

its condensation on the filler cap that when cools is water and mixs with oil = Mayo
There should only be a thin layer at the top

if its more of a Desert Spoon then yes get a compression test / sniff test

Ziggy

Ziggy122 said:

Sounds like air then to me

recently done a anti-freeze refresh after a Clip was leaking on the mk2

But its the same - once i had car running coolant level fine - fan worked fine - no overheating

However later on in the day - it'd cooled and the fluid level had dropped to min
Topped it up and its fine

open the bleed valves and let the air out - Wait till cool and top fluid up
again

keep a regular check on the coolant level
Ziggy

Click to expand...

:yeahthat:
If the issue isn't the HG then bleeding the system should help
Theres a guide in the guide section for this - took me ages as i didn't know what i was doing though park on steep hill to help bleeding..

But running the engine with air in the system may cause the HG to fail, even if the car doesn't overheat

MadMan0 said:

:yeahthat:
If the issue isn't the HG then bleeding the system should help
Theres a guide in the guide section for this - took me ages as i didn't know what i was doing though park on steep hill to help bleeding..

But running the engine with air in the system may cause the HG to fail, even if the car doesn't overheat

Click to expand...

Start on the Flat bleeding first
Yes if there is a Big Airlock then a Slope MIGHT help
But it'll bleed perfectly fine on a flat road

Ziggy

fingers99 said:

Compression test. Only fools change head gaskets for the fun of it.............

Click to expand...

It seemed like a good idea at the time!
Just as well it was the HG in my case - no compression test/no sniff test - just a hell of a load of tale tale signs - and loss of performance

will bleed the system tomorrow see how that go's

pedro1701e said:

To start hi all

was wondering if you guys on here could help i have a mint condition mk1 punto but it has just started showing sign's of head gasket failure but the wierd thing is that the heater works fine no mayo at the sump only has mayo at the oil cap and loseing water quick just not shure if it is head gasket or not

thanks peter

Click to expand...

First things first i guess Can you find any leaks, if these have dryed out any there will be a crystal like substance (white or purplely/Blue with spots of white colour) - mainly at joints, but if it's run off, then there will be a white smear over the coolents path

Then you can trace it back to the leak

that's the wierd thing there is no sign of a leak under the bonnet is so clean i would see it if there was

pedro1701e said:

that's the wierd thing there is no sign of a leak under the bonnet is so clean i would see it if there was

Click to expand...

IF they was a leak in the heat matrix you wouldn't be able to see it from under the bonnet very easily, if the floor are wet near the front of the car when there May, be a leak in the heater matrix.

Or someone may have poured something on the floor

thanks for the great help:slayer:

Do note that you'll often not see leaks from the water pump without the motor running and up to temperature.

fingers99 said:

Do note that you'll often not see leaks from the water pump without the motor running and up to temperature.

Click to expand...

thanks good info

Hi guys new info

Doing head gasket next week i am going to replace

all gaskets ,waterpump , thermostat,timing belt kit, alternator belt, spark plugs ,oil filter ,air filter , and get head skimmed


car is mint but has no history so better getting it done better safe than sorry