Head Gasket Gone?

[AustinM64]

Morning All,

 

Firstly, apologies for the long post but I felt there was a bit of history that may help.

This problem started some time ago when I noticed the heater had gone cold. I knew from experience that when the water is low the heater blows cold (had a leaking radiator). I didn’t check the water level immediately but then noticed the temp gauge went up. Topped up the water; problem went….. so I thought.

The same problem returned a number of weeks later (I can’t remember how long in between) i.e. the heater going cold and I topped up the water. This happened for a number of months without any change in the pattern.

I had the car serviced in March 2018 and not long after it came back the orange engine light came on. I checked this out with an OBD II  widget plus App. Fault P0301- Engine misfire on cylinder one. I cleared the fault but it comes back.

In October I had the temp go up sharply to the Red Zone. I was able to pull straight into a garage, fill up with water, buy 6 liters of spring water and I made the 20-minute journey home. Further investigation showed that the rusting pipes of the oil cooler had developed a hole or two.  I repaired this by bypassing the oil cooler with a purposed made piece of copper pipe.

Over the last four to six weeks the car has definitely developed a misfire under load conditions and occasionally ‘hunts’ at tick-over.

When cold, the misfire is accompanied by a 'popping' noise coming from the driver’s side of the engine bay (same side as No.1 cylinder and the radiator cap). When warm, the misfire jolts the car into a ‘rough road kind of judder’.

Drove to Liverpool on 27th; 5 people on board; 404-mile round trip getting 28.8 mpg. On the flat purring, underload juddering.

Recently I have changed the plug and the HT leads.

The car has done approx. 155k troublish-free miles.

My gut feeling is the head gasket is going/has gone or worse case, there is a crack in the block or head.

Has anyone else experienced these symptoms and did the problem turn out to be the head gasket?

 

Kind regards

Austin

[bignev]

Hi there!

Have you got white emulsified oil?

Or oily deposits in the rad?

 

Test the spark with an old lead and plug if you have them, one at a time, sit the plug on top of the cross member and observe the spark.

I had far more severe symptoms on mine, but 3 were crap sparks, and it just went suddenly, ok on the trip out, garbage on start up to come home.

 

If not try a new ignition coil - rockauto.com from the States can be cheaper than the UK!! 

I have just bought TWO coils, as mine went, after only 5 months, delivered in 3 days, for £70.00, all duties paid.

 

Or of course ebay.

 

If you were closer you could borrow one of mine!!

 

Just taken a quick look on ebay and £35.95 from Telford inc delivery, bargain.

Edited December 30, 2018 by bignev

[AustinM64]

Hi BigNev,

 

Unfortunately, there are none of the obvious signs (unless I'm missing them). No oil in the water, no water in the oil, no emulsified deposits in either the radiator or the oil filler cap.

 

When I do a 'cold tin lid' test there is a very small amount of condensation on it but nothing unusual (Petrol and diesel are hydrocarbons. When these fuels burn, the carbon and hydrogen atoms combine with oxygen atoms to produce carbon dioxide and water vapour).

 

I have a CO2 tester coming in the week. I have the old HT leads so will test all the plugs and I plan on keeping the car for a while so will change the ignition coil.

 

I'll report back.

 

Thanks

 

Austin

[bignev]

Good on all counts of the head gasket tests then, excellent.

 

Are you still getting the P0301 code? The first time mine went I got the code for cylinder 4, this time just got P0300 misfire on multiple cylinders, tested out like it too! Poor spark on 3, very bright spark on the others.

 

It would seem sensible that as they are a "wasted spark" type coil the misfire would relate to 2 cylinders, but in my cars experience that isn't the case.

[AustinM64]

Yes, still getting the P0301 fault code. Funnily enough, just looked at the logged faults this afternoon and there was a fault of P0300 there as well! Cleared the faults and have used the car today without the fault codes returning (not unusual).

[Carrotts]

Hi Austin

Sorry to hear about your problems and hope you get sorted.

I wondered if I could pick your brains a little though. You.mwntion that your transmission cooler pipes had rusted and I'm having the same problem. I was wondering if it was possible to cut them at the ends as they seem ok and then joint in so e pipe, maybe some kind of micro bore or similar. Did you call sider anything like this and if you did what made you go for the copper instead. My transmission radiator is fine and it is just the steel pipes at the radiator end that have corroded.

Thanks

Dave

[AustinM64]

Dear All,

 

An update.

 

Head gaskets done and I have completed about 2,000 miles since (including a 1,600 mile trip to France - which itself included 3 x approx 2h 30 min stints at 84 mph (136 kph) - 4 adults, our luggage, and a roof box full of tools)

 

It was very difficult to see but No 1 Cylinder did have slight discolouration of the valve heads, brownish as opposed to black/greyish, and a little bit more 'black' across the 'circular ring seal area' on the head - if you've taken one appart, you'll know what I mean - and the water jacket. Having put sealers in the water system, most of the waterways were considerably restricted. I cleaned these in both the heads and block, had the heads skimmed and finally replaced the rotten exhaust heat-shields, front and back.

 

Before reassembly, I made a visual check on the head bolts and they all looked in excellent condition so did not replace them. Whilst I made sure there was no fluid or debris in the block holes for the head bolts, I did have 'a moment' when going through the final torque tightening sequence, one of the head bolts just went way beyond the 90 degree turn and didn't 'click' (I had set my Torque Wrench to 125 NM as I had read that after the final 90 degree turn the torque of the bolt should be at least 122 NM.) I finished the other bolts and went back to this bolt. I undid it and took it out; it looked fine, so I popped it back in, repeated the sequence and it was fine. When doing the final 90 degree turn, it clicked at about 60-75 degrees (few!! ).

 

The car runs cooler now at between 88-89 and 93-94 degrees C (instead of the previous 96 - 100 degrees C)

 

So far, there doesn't seem to be any noticeable issue with the fact that I have bypassed the water from flowing through the oil-filter housing (after 2,000 miles it still looks light brown and it doesn't appear to have burnt any oil).

 

Thanks for your input, and I hope this helps.

 

On to changing the Clutch in my P38 2.5 DSE Ranger Rover! 

 

Cheers

 

Austin

Edited April 22, 2019 by AustinM64