head gasket change advice, rover 45, HEAD GASKET NOT YET GONE, BUT OBV ON IT WAY OUT

[rovermatt]

hey

i have a rover 45 1.4 03 plate 37k

its drinking loads of coolant and misfiring in cylinder 1 so im guesing this is where the water is going, its also brought up the engine management light detecting 'general catalyst failure' which we assume is due to water/steam passing over the 02 sensors and giving faulty readings

as the head gasket has not yet gone on the car we assume its on its way out so i have decided to change it tomorrow (as im going to scotland in 1 week with a car and trailer full) with the upgraded head gasket and with a rocker cover gasket too (ive already replaced the inlet manifold gasket with the green one)

is there any advice you guys have before i undertake the job tomorrow, i would like to get it done in one day regardless if im up all night as the car is heavily used therefore im lost without it

is there anything i should look out for?? anything that is normall forgotton or goes wrong when they are changed?? anything i should ensure i do when taking it apart to ensure a perfect rebuild and no odd bits left which ur sure came of the car about an hr ago haha

thankyou in advance

[ScottishRover]

Originally Posted by rovermatt

hey

i have a rover 45 1.4 03 plate 37k

its drinking loads of coolant and misfiring in cylinder 1 so im guesing this is where the water is going, its also brought up the engine management light detecting 'general catalyst failure' which we assume is due to water/steam passing over the 02 sensors and giving faulty readings

as the head gasket has not yet gone on the car we assume its on its way out so i have decided to change it tomorrow (as im going to scotland in 1 week with a car and trailer full) with the upgraded head gasket and with a rocker cover gasket too (ive already replaced the inlet manifold gasket with the green one)

is there any advice you guys have before i undertake the job tomorrow, i would like to get it done in one day regardless if im up all night as the car is heavily used therefore im lost without it

is there anything i should look out for?? anything that is normall forgotton or goes wrong when they are changed?? anything i should ensure i do when taking it apart to ensure a perfect rebuild and no odd bits left which ur sure came of the car about an hr ago haha

thankyou in advance

plenty of boxes with labels so you remember where each bolt and fitting came from.

tipex to mark things so you can remember where they came from.

plenty of patience, take your time, have plenty of breaks, try not get frustrated.

soak the exhaust manifold nuts in release oil tonight to make them a bit easier to remove if they are particularly rusty.

good luck.

[1955diesel]

How much coolant are you losing?

If it is leaking past the head gasket, it will show up in the oil or as an external leak. If it is leaking past the fire rings into the cylinders (as you seem to be suggesting) then combustion gas will also be coming back the other way into the cooling system. This shows itself on Rovers by causing air locks, lack of heater and rapid boiling. (see the diagnosis thread in the How Do I? section)

If the misfire is being caused by ingesting coolant, it may well still be caused by a leaking manifold gasket, even though you have changed it.

Perhaps more likely is a regular coolant leak (often very hard to trace) together with a misfire for another reason.

[rovermatt]

thanks for the replies

ive replaced the head gasket today with the 2 peice upgraded one and i checked the inlet manifold gasket when i took it of and all was clean

once i got the head back on i gave up for today as id been on it for about 7hrs

i do have to say, having air conditioning makes the job soo much harder as there are fliping air con pipes all over the place

i couldnt move the alternator at all either for some reason which made removing the heat shield a nightmare!

there maybe the possibility that the water is been lost from somewhere else but UltraVoilet liquid was added to the coolant and i could not see where (if so) it would be leaking from, either way, atleast the HG has now been changed, just need to replace the rocker cover gasket tomorow and fix the cover to the head and then attach all electronics and pipes back together

ive drained all the oil too which is draining overnight just incase any water got in when we removed the head etc to make sure its all clean

i was loosing about one tank every 4 days id estimate, there was no oil in the coolant tank yet but apart from being thirsty thers nothing showing the HG has yet gone so im hoping iv noticed it when its starting to go which has enabled me to change the HG before doing much damage

ohh and it gets hot much faster lately, after about 5 mins (if that) the temp is half way up the needle which is normal temp, however, it NEVER overheats

lets hope for the best

[langleys]

Your one sounds exactly like mine was. I was losing a whole tank of coolant every 20 miles or so. Mine also had a slight misfire. I changed the HG on mine but even now I dont think it was that. I still, to this day, think the inlet manifold gasket was at fault. I also added UV dye to the coolant and it did not show up anywhere and I suspect my water was coming out of the exhaust because when I changed a section of the exhaust there was a fair bit of water settled in there which did have UV dye in.

[rovermatt]

well thanks to you all for your replies

i finished the HG today and it fired up first time, couldnt have been happier

[rovermatt]

well thanks to you all for your replies

i finished the HG today and it fired up first time, couldnt have been happier

the only prob i had was that the revs wernt settling down but this was due to me forgetting to connect the purge valve which was soon rectified

im just hoping that the water problem isnt still present

[EHO681N]

Good job on the head gasket - please read my post of today 24/08/08 re need to initialise the throttle if the throttle position sensor is disturbed - maybe this is the cause of revs not settling down

[rovermatt]

thanks for the reply

the revs wernt settling down due to me forgetting to attach the purge valve hose by mistake, soon rectified this though

many thanks, matt