Technical Punto Head Gasket

[bennett]

My mk punto 55, the head gasket has gone i think? Oil leaking down the front of the gasket and the coolant is bubling when the cap is taken off.

Ive found a head gasket for £27, i've heard this cost a lot of money for changing it because of the labour cost.

How much is it to get a new head gasket fitted?

 

[arc]

does the coolant bubble from cold? and does the oil leak from the join below the manifolds, or above?

Budget around £150-£200 labour for a garage to change it. You should change the water pump, cam belt, cam belt tensioner and use new head bolts too.

 

[bennett]

It bubles after its being goinga while? I dont no what manifold are (im not to bright when it comes to engines) il take a picture of it for you tomorrow

 

[arc]

bubbling with the gap off once warm is prolly just the water boiling. its a pressurised system, you remove the cap and it depressurises. and the boiling point drops.

look at the engine, you see the big rusty coloured collection of pipes that comes off the front of the engine? thats the exhaust manifold. there is a gasket around the top of the engine above that, and one aorund another join lower down, below that. the head gasket is the lower one, and the upper one is just the cam cover gasket

 

[bennett]

Well there is a whole list of problems ive found

Engine Revs up and down on its own at traffic lights
fan never seems to come on under the bonnet
drinks oil and water.

However, i havent found any residue in the oil or coolant caps. Here are some pics of my engine hope they help.

 

[custard]

well if you have no cooling fan and have been using the car then theres a good chance you have a HG problem. the oil leaks look like rocker cover leaks,no big problem

 

[bennett]

So where do you suggest i go from here, if i wanted to do the work myself.

What check points can i do to see why the fan isnt working.

So it basically just the seal of the head gasket thts gone, i might clean the oil from around the gasket to see exactly where the oils coming from?

 

[bennett]

Actually when filling up the coolant when it got to nearly the top i actually saw the colour and it was a proper dirty brown colour

 

[dave]

that top gasket isnt a head gasket its cam cover gasket, they are 3 quid ish, head gasket is lower down below where manifold bolts on,
if it was me i would just change the coolent for 50/50 mix antifreeze n water, if it was headgasket with this warm weather it should have died by now

 

[bennett]

Well still runs fine minus overheating (especially today n drinking oil n water) im checking the fan tomorrow with the paper clip test, then i do the 50/50 with the coolant, the coolant has been topped up twice today a kettle full of water each time.

Why is the coolant brown though?

Is the cam cover gasket easy change?

 

[dave]

its brown because its just water, it has no coolent in it and its eating the insides of your engine away

 

[bennett]

Is it possible to drain the coolant or water away, what is the proper coolant then 50% water 50% anti-freeze?

 

[dave]

Is it possible to drain the coolant or water away, what is the proper coolant then 50% water 50% anti-freeze?

yep thats correct, you drain it by removing bottom hose from rad, it may still be a factory clip that you need to destroy to remove and buy new screw type clip,
re fill is in the guides section under bleeding a cooling system

 

[bennett]

Is the cam cover gasket the same as the Rocker Cover Gasket?

 

[arc]

yes, no, sort of. your engine doesnt have a rocker cover, so no rocker cover gasket either.

 

[bennett]

Eh? didnt understand the last post

 

[dave]

he means yes sometimes people do call it a rocker cover
alough its not the correct name as that name comes from days of old when engines had the cam in the middle of the engine ant the valves were opened by rockers on the top of the head bu rods called puch rods. in them days the top engine cover covered these rockers so it was called a rocker cover.
now they put the cam on top of the engine so there is no rods or rockers as the came can oped the valves its self, so the top engine cover is now called the cam cover