blown head gasket

[slant 0]

Ok, Im not to "engine freindly". I do electronics, and very simple engine work. Im sure Im going to sould like and idiot, but I gotta ask. I was recently told that my head gasket is blown. When asked what kind of engine it was so that I could get it replaced, all I knew was 4 cylinder 1.8 liter. Its a 1990 G60. My question is, is this a 16 valve engine or and 8? I thought it was an 8. My other question, why can nobody resist messing around with our cars when they go to the shop? It really bugs me.

[nocrap 0]

Tis an 8 valve.

[slant 0]

Thanx. I thought so. Just one more question. Any Idea how long it should take to change the head gasket? My mechanic quoted me $800. Including parts that works out to almost 10 hours of work at his hourly rate. Needless to say, Im looking for sombody less expensive.

[nocrap 0]

Obviously i've got no idea of cost difference between here and there, but i'd say $800 is probably what it would cost around here.

[dr_mat 0]

10 hours for HG on a four-pot sounds a lot.. I don't know for sure how much extra work there is because it's a G60, but a head gasket on most of the 4-pot 8v engines takes a couple of hours max..

[steveo29 0]

make sure he uses the g60 specific gasket too..its not a regular 8v one

 

10 hrs sounds a bit high

[Supercharged 2]

Very early G60's didn't get the copper gasket but make sure it is the HG and not the OE heatexchanger exibiting the same symptoms

 

Stealth chanrge about £350 for a G60 HG job, the reason alot of places may quote for 8+ hours is that if it's blown and has been driven there will be a lot of extra work involved in cleaning out the contamination, ie steam cleaning parts, coolant flushes and several oil changes...

[steveo29 0]

wouldnt it be a wise upgrade to a metal gasket even if it is a early one?

[Supercharged 2]

Oh yeah - deffo, it's the only one VW list for the G60 now (changed in '89)

[slant 0]

Thanks, you guys have been alot of help Ill make sure my mechanic has all that information. Unfortunately, if found out that somebody took my car for a beat run while the shop had it. Good news is, I wont be paying for any repairs. Bad news, I no longer have power steering, or a fully functional stereo. I expect to find more when I get it on the lift at work on monday.

[jonnyboyo 0]

I always note down the mileage my car has whenever it goes into a garage to see if it has been unessesarally (spelling) driven around. Have a few friends who work(ed) in garages including main stealers who like nothing more than a sporty car being booked in.

One story told was when a Rado VR6 was being delivered back to the customer by a mate of mine who worked for VW as a driver/valeter. He still fondly looks back on the time he had the speedo reading 80mph in 2nd gear overtaking 3 articulated lorries on the A59...WTF!!! :shocked!:

The car had only gone in for a valet! I've never trusted the shiny facade of main dealers ever since. They still have the same grease monkeys working out the back lol!! :)

[khurrado 0]

I took my old e class to the garage for a service couple o f years ago, later that day, i saw the mechanic picking his daughter up from school in it.

 

Whats that all about?

[Henny 0]

I phoned a garage once a couple of hours after I'd dropped J-DUB in for a suspension setup and asked them where they were taking my car... they replied "no-where, sir" to which I told them that the car had just sent me a text message to let me know that it had just broken 80mph and had breached the 5 mile radius curfew zone I'd set in the tracker when I dropped it in with them... The silence from the other end of the phone was fun... ;) It was even better when I pointed out that there's no legal place to do over 60mph within the area that the car was in and that I was seriously considering calling the police... :twisted:

Needless to say, I didn't pay for the suspension setup and I haven't been back to that garage since... :lol:

 

Anyway back to the main question:

 

G60 engine (PG engine code)

1791cc - 81mm bore with 86.4 mm stroke 9:1 compression ratio

8valve - single overhead cam with hydraulic followers

multi-layered metal head gasket (G60 only part)

 

The head gasket itself takes about 3 hours labour to change as long as it's not blown in a BIG way in which case it adds on another hour or two to clean up the water and oil ways to remove the contamination. Depending on how badly it has blown and what's caused it (overheating is especially bad) the head may need a light skim to make sure that the face is completely flat and level which will add a little onto the cost.

 

What makes you (and the garage) think that the head gasket has gone? There's an oil cooler (supercharged mentioned this in his post above) which has both oil and water in it and these are known to occasionally fracture internally causing oil and water to mix giving the appearance of a head gasket failure but with a much, much, much cheaper price to fix... ;)