Hi,
My Exxy has just blown it's head gasket due to a coolant leak. I intend to replace the gasket but that still leaves the leak, which is in the metal coolant pipes which run under the car.

My question is: is there any way to repair these pipes which doesn't involve replacing them, preferably from the inside (using someing similar to radweld)

Cheers in advance
Neojames2k

You have 3 options:

1) Walk away and do nothing - it will keep blowing the head gasket...

2) Insert sleeves down the straight parts. You will have to chop the bends out and fit replacements of some kind in order to do this. The downside is a larger drop in pressure as pipes will be narrower - the waterpump will be working hard to try and compensate.

3) Cut the boxsection from the bottom of the car and do the job properly by replacing the pipes completely. Either rebuild the box section afterwards or leave it exposed (pros and cons for both methods).

You can't rely on any miracle cure for the pipes unfortunately

Cheers Jimbro

I'll have to have a proper look at where the leak is, it may be a repairable job on the bend

I've order my new gasket and have been reading the Haynes book of lies to work out how to get the head off and back on. Am I right in thinking that i need to remove the cam tower to get access to the bolts??

Cheers
Neojames2k

If you don't have a suitable crowsfoot socket then yes you will need to remove the cam box. It isn't a major issue but you have to be very careful not to mix the valve shim buckets up.

Big problem is seperating the head from the block - some come off easy others seem to be glued on.

So can a crowsfoot be used to torque the head back down?

Cheers

The proper tool can be used to do the job but an ordinary tool is not suited to use with a torque wrench. If you haven't stuck gold and found an original Fiat tool (and trust me they have never been easy to find even when you could buy them from Fiat) then it would be a large risk to use anything else. I'm pretty sure you could find a suitable tool elsewhere (Snap-On's equivalent for example).

Unfortunately the only proper way to fix the pipes is as jimbro said in methods 2 & 3, one of the pipes at the rear of my exxy had a tiny pin hole in it that allowed at slow drip type leak - i cleaned it off, stuck a tyre patch on and then secured it in place with a jubilee clip.......a bodge I know but it lasted years!!!!!!
URH 722W where are you now?