Technical blown head gasket cylinder

[smido]

blown cylinder head gasket

Hi Panda lovers,

I have a little difficulty with my panda. I'm afraid that the problem is caused by blown cylinder head gasket.
I'm from Slovakia, but now Im studying in UK for a year and some of you can correctly assume that I came here with my panda. In September I made a roadtrip across Europe.
The problem occured in about November, when Panda suddenly lost the power. Driving uphill she was only able to go in second gear not exceeding 45km per hour (approximately 30 miles per hour). There was some strange, nameless noise from engine sector (some kind of clutter sound?) while accelerating. There were also problems with no heating and leak of steam, probably from exhaust system through coolant system (cold engine).

Just before Christmas, Panda didn't start, starter motor was hardly spinning. I have started to solve the starting problem after three weeks holiday in Slovakia. When I came back at first I tried my friend's battery to be sure my battery is fine. Of course I started the engine (only with little difficulties), but after maybe 45 sec. engine stopped running and afterwards we weren't able to start the engine again, but this difficulty can be caused by the fact panda was out of use for about one month, as well as humid weather and wet cabling. Im not afraid of starting problem (Im going to buy a new battery, change spark plugs, dry the electric contacts..) as the problem with the head gasket afterwards.

Personally it would be ideal for me to solve the problem at home in Slovakia, but I guess driving over 2000km back home to Slovakia with blown cylinder head gasket is not clever and maybe not possible idea as well. So the options I consider is to change the cylinder head gasket or to replace the engine with some Punto 1.2 engine.

Do you have any recommendations about it? For spare parts I was browsing eurocarparts.co.uk page. Any recommendations where to look for Punto engine (1.2 44kW 60 HP). And do you know some garage in Huddersfield area?

(I almost forget: I have 1.0 i.e. KAT 33kw 45hp 1990)

Thank you for any response and advice!

Cheers,
Lubo

 

[james2609]

Change the head gasket, few hours work at most. Make sure to change head bolts too.

 

[purple haze]

You can't just put a punto engine in that easily. There are threads on here which give full details of engine changes.

As said, get head gasket set and stretch bolts and replace. You may have to get the head skimmed as well. Plus driving with a blown head can cause other problems.

1) water in the oil= dead engine.

2) water in the cylinder bores= dead engine.

3) loss of water/coolant= dead engine.

In other words get the head off.... A few hours and not a lot of money..

 

[oxide hunter]

welcome to panda land

if you cant find a genuine panda gasket (i couldnt when i looked), you could probably use one for a 1.1 cinquecento. the bore size is the same so i cant imagine any reason y you couldn't use it as its a FIRE block and head (someone please correct me if im mistaken). its very easy job to do. hardest bit is not lousing any nuts or bolts

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_n..._sacat=&_odkw=fiat+panda+mk1+gasket&_osacat=0

what ever you do, dont run your engine untill the job is done. a punto engine conversion is a great looking project and i would love to do one myself, but its defiantly not a job to be taken lightly.

good luck :slayer:

 

[smido]

Thank you for advices ,

I thought that you need to remove the engine to be able to change head gasket - whenever I hear about removing the engine, I'm not sure about doing it by myself .(But probably it is a kind of removing the engine I would be able to do) I'm not very skilful..


I bought Porters workshop manual recently, and found instruction manual to refitting the head gasket, so I hope I will be able to change it all by myself.
I found this head gasket on Eurocarparts webpage (I couldnt insert urls yet) It should be suitable. In what cases is it appropriate to buy a whole head set?
How can I know which head bolts are suitable to me? only after removing old ones? (there are two types on eurocarparts webpage)

To be honest I was driving with my panda also after power loss appearance, so I hope I didn't kill my engine completely

 

[VmanC]

A head gasket set is necessary because as well as the head gasket you will get gaskets for other parts you will need to take off, the inlet and exhaust manifolds for example. I've had a look at the head bolts on Euro's web site and I would say the cheaper set are the ones you will need, but it may be a good idea to phone them about it as the first set on thier list doesn't make sense to me.

Yes the head gasket can easily be replaced, no need at all to remove the engine. As you have driven it for quite some distance with the gasket blown I recommend you have the head face machined and change the engine oil and filter.

 

[smido]

Guys, thank you for responses,

so I'm going to change the head gasket, hope I will be able to manage it by myself, with assistance of my friend and Haynes manual. I hope that blown gasket is the source of problems. Of course I will change the oil and filter afterwards

I will post my update later. Cheers

 

[smido]

Hi guys,
news with my Panda . I was in service to provide a compression check. When I came later they told me the timing belt was damaged what caused the pistons/ valves damage. I felt very miserable. Afterwards I called to my friend (also a panda owner) who was surprised that the damaged timing belt will cause the engine damage (in case of Panda cars). So I came back to the service to ask how did they find out. They said to me they only assumed upon the damaged timing belt.
So they replaced the timing belt with the tensioner as well and the Panda seems to work as before.
On the one hand I feel very stupid that only the wrong timing belt was the reason I haven't drove the panda for months. On the other hand it was really nice news to know only this caused the problem.

Now only the speedometer seems to not work, but I hope I will solve it

So the panda is now looking forward to the Scotland trip and a trip back home to Slovakia!
Thank you guys again

 

[VmanC]

The FIRE engine is what's known as a safe engine, meaning that the valves do not hit the pistons when the cambelt fails.

Glad you've got it back on the road.

 

[Didge3]

The FIRE engine is what's known as a safe engine, meaning that the valves do not hit the pistons when the cambelt fails.

Glad you've got it back on the road.

:yeahthat:
But for future reference for anyone reading this, the FIRE engine is non interference so the valves will not smash into the pistons if the timing it out or the belt snaps, however engines fitted with VVT are excluded from this.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

:yeahthat:
But for future reference for anyone reading this, the FIRE engine is non interference so the valves will not smash into the pistons if the timing it out or the belt snaps, however engines fitted with VVT are excluded from this.

and 16v Super FIRE units