Head Gasket?

[Dougalo 0]

Hi Guys,

 

Finally realised a 10 year dream and got my 1st Corrado at the weekend!

 

Anyway, she is going through a fair bit of water and after having checked all the obvious places (from the sticky coolant loss post) I have discovered that there is a lot of moisture coming from the exhaust - especially on startup. From what I can see there is no oil in coolant and vice versa. Does this sound like my head gasket is away? The car seems to be running fine - no white smoke etc.....

 

Any help would be appreciated - cheers!

[Jim 2]

Welcome aboard! What engine does it have? This will help with coolant loss diagnosis! :)

[Dougalo 0]

Sorry, it's a 1.8 16v! Cheers!

[Walesy 0]

Hi mate

 

Have you looked for any signs of obvious leaks?

[vr6storm 0]

Anyway, she is going through a fair bit of water and after having checked all the obvious places (from the sticky coolant loss post) I have discovered that there is a lot of moisture coming from the exhaust - especially on startup. From what I can see there is no oil in coolant and vice versa. Does this sound like my head gasket is away? The car seems to be running fine - no white smoke etc.....

 

Any help would be appreciated - cheers!

 

 

 

moisture from the exhaust is ok.....especially when starting from cold......its just if it was white smoke from the exhaust i'd be worried...............as corradowales has said....have you checked for obvious leaks?.........it could possibly be your water pump is leaking,a small hole in the radiator,the expansion bottle having a split in it etc

[dazzyvr6 0]

i wouldnt worry to much about water coming out of the exhaust,its probably condensation and all cars will do the same,if you say you cant see any obvious leaks,then id change the pressure cap on the expantion bottle

[Walesy 0]

..unless of course it's pouring out!!!>

 

 

(( or p1ssing out of it's arse as my mate puts it so nicely :roll: ))

[Dougalo 0]

Cheers for the advice.

 

I've done a quick visual check of all the obvious parts (as detailed in http://the-corrado.net/.archive/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9443) and can't see anything. I'll take a thorough look over all these areas at the weekend. It shouldn't be too difficult to spot as I'm going through about 1 litre of water every 100 miles!!!

[Walesy 0]

Cool.

 

Ive had to change the plastic housing on the side of the head in all three of my 8v raddo's due to them leaking. Its a crappy plastic part, only a few quid to change, fingers crossed it'l be something like that. :D

[Dougalo 0]

Got an update on this post....

 

Got my girlfriend to drop me off today and as she pulled away there was blue smoke out the exhaust! I'd never noticed this before because i'm always driving!!

 

Does this help with diagnostics??

 

Cheers guys!

[veeDuB_Rado 0]

Blue Smoke = Baaaaad

Sorry mate :|

[Dougalo 0]

How bad? What are we talking here?

[gsbellew 0]

Blue smoke = oil being burnt, not the end of the world really, hows your oil level? If someone over-filled it you would get blue smoke, its more likely that the car needs a head re-build by this stage if it has not already been done.

[Dougalo 0]

I've only had the car for a few days and it has a bad(ish) oil leak. I checked the oil level this morning, expecting it to be pretty low, but i was surprised to find that it was normal. If it was just over-filled how long should it take before the blue smoke goes away? I have a funny feeling that there may be something more than over-filled oil though!

[Walesy 0]

I've only had the car for a few days and it has a bad(ish) oil leak

 

where has the car been leaking oil from?...

 

I hate hearing about sh1t like this..was the car from a dealer mate?

[vr6storm 0]

I've only had the car for a few days and it has a bad(ish) oil leak. I checked the oil level this morning, expecting it to be pretty low, but i was surprised to find that it was normal. If it was just over-filled how long should it take before the blue smoke goes away? I have a funny feeling that there may be something more than over-filled oil though!

 

 

 

if it was overfilling that caused the blue smoke then once the level was back to normal it should stop

[chubbybrown 0]

the oil leaking could be just dripping on the exaust at the front and burning?

 

check and see it could just be the rocker gasket.

[Roger Blassberg 0]

If you have an obvious oil leak but the oil level isn't dropping, and you are losing coolant, maybe the coolant is topping up the oil via a blown head gasket.

If you think that this is a possible scenario, my very strong advice is to rectify it immediately otherwise the contamination of the oil will lead to bearing/crankshaft/bore/cam wear.

 

Best wishes

RB

[Dougalo 0]

Ok, looks like the head gasket is away on my valver. :cry:

 

I'm not expereinced enough to attempt this myself so am wondering roughly how much £ i'm looking at to get this sorted from a garage.

 

Has anyone had this work done? How much did you pay?

[vwdubs 0]

To be honest with you Doug its not quite as easy as saying it should be £***, it could range from a situation such as just changing the head gasket (unlikely) to having the head itself skimmed if it has warped from getting too hot and the pressure escaping.

 

What you need to do is have the engine pressure tested and this may clarify if it is actually the head and then if so move on from there.

[vr6storm 0]

try star-performance in Kirkcaldy...........cheap-ish rates for a quality job

 

i would say that if its just a straight forward head gasket replacement then £2-£300 max