Knackered Cylinder Head

[Jonty303]

Just found out the cylinder head in my 1.8 Bravo is knackered (after throwing a sparkplug out).

Either I pay £850 for repair (however long that lasts) or £1350 for a new head.....

Any suggestions (aside from scrapping the flaming thing and never buying Fiat again?)

 

[Tom]

OOps!!!!

Has it stripped the spark plug thread? If so the repairs can last a long time. A friend has a repaired thread on his rally car and its still going strong after 7-8 years.

Where are you in the coutry?

 

[Jonty303]

Re: Re: Knackered Cylinder Head

Apparently the sparkplug threads WERE stripped.... Does you know what usually causes this?

I live in the Leeds/Wakefield area.

Would a recon engine be cheaper?

 

[Tom]

Re: Re: Re: Knackered Cylinder Head

Overtightening usually. When the service monkey uses his big hairy ape-arm to do up the plugs to the same tightness as the wheel nuts.

Dunno anywhere up there. If you were down south I'd say Saunders engineering in Southampton.

Is there anything else wrong with your engine? The repair should be head off, skim and rethread the head and reassembly.

 

[Jonty303]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Knackered Cylinder Head

I've not been told what else is specifically wrong with it, just that it's going to cost a fortune to fix (this is from one of them-there AA Service Centres).

 

[Ribzz]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Knackered Cylinder Head

Jonty I'm from Wakefied m8

Go to Gordons Tyres in Wrenthorpe on the A650 (Near Outwood school) and ask for Gaz Davies.

He knows my car inside out but is a brill mechanic too. Gordons get loads of fiats in as there is a fiat local dealer down the road so they have alot of experience in dealing with them.

Try him out you wont be dissapointed

 

[Jonty303]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Knackered Cylinder Head

Cheers. I wil give him a bell.

Thanks!

 

[Ph1l]

Repairs

My HGT is being repaired at the moment. Its having a couple new con rods, piston rings a new piston, clutch, cambelt, crank grinding etc. The place thats doing it said its £2000 for a new engine for it, but I'm getting my one repaired. Not seen results yet, but the place seems good and they keep me updated regularly on progress etc. They are in Stanford le Hope.

 

[george]

In my motorbike days you used to get a thing called a 'helicoil', this was an insert to fix the problem of folk stripping alloy heads. Local engineering shops should be able to do something. Remember bike engines generally have much higher compression ratios, and the repair could withstand that.

 

[Pete]

Re Helicoil

I`ve had Rover 2000`s in the past, and had Helicoils in at least 3 of them (alloy heads). They make a permanent repair and are fitted from the outside i.e. no dismantling necessary.

Pete

 

[RM]

AA....hmmmm

I was told by the AA that it was going to cost £600 to get my lowly AX's (I know, not a Bravo....) cylinder head welded and skimmed.

Good job I went to a local garage (for local people) where the job INCLUDING a new cam belt cost £250.

As someone said in this thread, AA = 'airy arms.

 

[Tom]

Re: Re: Knackered Cylinder Head

There is a special helicoil for plugs. Normal helicoils are not actually gas tight.

 

[Alan]

Re: Re Helicoil

a helicoil should be ok, i'm sure thats all thay would do to repair your head. You have to be careful you don't get **** in the cylinder whilst your working so i should imagine a lot of garages would want to take the head off anyway.

 

[Tom]

Re: Re: Re Helicoil

You HAVE to take the head off to do that.

 

[Jonty303]

thanks peeps

Going to do some ringing around the local garages and see if anyone is prepared to do me a deal...

Thanks for all the posts....seems it might not be the end of the world just yet!

 

[Alan]

Re: Re: Re: Re Helicoil

Seems sensible to me!

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re Helicoil

OR - there is a whole Brava 1.8ELX on ebay at the moment for £790!

Goes in about 20 mins tho
Nige

 

[Alan]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re Helicoil

You could always cut a couple of holes in the foot well and do a fred flintstone. All of a sudden your friends wouldn't want a lift. lol

 

[Anonymous]

Why dont you buy a power zone performance head?

i have a copy of revs and they do a head for £425 and they need your old head in exchange.
its built up and ready to fit (is what there add says) so all you may need unless they suplie it is a new head gasket
there telephone number is
01282 724427
the price was listed in there add if you buy a copy of revs they are the very first 2 pages on a double spread
good luck hope u get it sorted

 

[Jonty303]

A happy ending

Took the car to another garage after a massive falling out with the AA Service Centre for not telling me how much the diagnostic work was (£135)

Spoke to someone who worked there (friend of my g/f) who said they're a bunch of robbing bastards (and that he wouldn't be working there a second longer than he had to).

Guy who's sorting the car now has done the job for half the price.... Starting to breath again.

Moral of the story: The AA are robbing bastards.
- Amen to that.