Arnage red label 6.75l head gasket...a certain problem?
Discussion
The bill for the HG replacement on my Turbo R came in a shade under £6k, carried out by an independent RR/Bentley specialist. That included replacing the radiator, hoses, and all sorts of other bits of the cooling system at the same time.
Best news is that this was done a few hundred miles before I bought the car, so the previous owner had the dubious pleasure of paying for it.
I believe the radiators on these cars are prone to clogging up so have resolved to having the coolant change each year to help minimise the chance of it cooking in future.
Best news is that this was done a few hundred miles before I bought the car, so the previous owner had the dubious pleasure of paying for it.
I believe the radiators on these cars are prone to clogging up so have resolved to having the coolant change each year to help minimise the chance of it cooking in future.
pancholi said:
matt, thanks for keeping us updated, and hopefully will shed light on what to do then this issue needs to be tackled including aspects such as what to replace, upgrade( if needed)etc while the job is being done.
would be great to follow a journey from the start on the correction of a failed HG.
cheers raj
Sure, I'll post as many details as possible.would be great to follow a journey from the start on the correction of a failed HG.
cheers raj
It's probably going to happen in January some time. Garage has given me initial estimate which is competitive when compared to the main dealers and also other specialists. It's a garage I know well. This will include taking it all apart, stripping the heads down, doing all the valves, skimming the heads and totally de-coking them and flushing through and cleaning out the rad and cooling system, re-assembling it and testing it etc. On top of this I would guess we will end up attending to other things as well, and the costs of this will unfold as we go along, eg. there is a noisy tappet on start up, silly not to sort this at the same time, but I don't expect significant costs on this front. I very much doubt the rad will need replacing. The gasket set (the full de-coke set, not just the head gaskets) comes in at about £850+vat, genuine parts. With any luck, there wont be any stripped threads in the block - I didn't over heat it, so, I would be surprised.
It's not such a bad job to do - part of me does wonder if it's "hyped" up a bit by some garages in order to justify some of the charges. Hopefully I wont come to eat those words!
Edited by matt5791 on Wednesday 22 February 07:37
Update - work has started and top of engine has been stripped down.
Signs are - seems fairly certain that the engine has never been apart before, which is nice, but also a shame to have to strip it. But it's 20 years old, so, sooner or later it's inevitable. Condition is really lovely - no signs of any wear to cams, tappets, valve guides - all in super nice shape.
However, we are going to replace all the tappets - there is a noisy one on start up, but it isn't possible to ascertain which one is the noisy one from visual inspection. They get noisy because they wont hold the oil in them, so, after the car has sat for a bit or overnight, the oil seeps out and it takes a minute or so to fill up. Or, if it/they are really bad, they don't fill up and stay noisy and wear out.
The problem with the tappets on this car is the price of the original ones - approx £200+vat EACH - there are 16 of course. However the garage have recommended an aftermarket one from Flying Spares, which are £20 each. Alarm bells sound - how can they be so much cheaper? The fact is £20 is the normal price for a tappett - the Bentley price is completely ludicrous. I called Flying Spares to sound them out. The line they have - which I have no reason to disbelieve, is virtually nobody buys the original ones except people where money is literally no object in places like the Middle East. Apparently they even sell them into the main agent network.
Anyway - the aftermarket ones are going in the engine - worst case, it's £600 labour to strip all the stuff off the engine to get at them again - which is not great, but not the end of the world.
Heads are going off today to be checked over and light skim.
Signs are - seems fairly certain that the engine has never been apart before, which is nice, but also a shame to have to strip it. But it's 20 years old, so, sooner or later it's inevitable. Condition is really lovely - no signs of any wear to cams, tappets, valve guides - all in super nice shape.
However, we are going to replace all the tappets - there is a noisy one on start up, but it isn't possible to ascertain which one is the noisy one from visual inspection. They get noisy because they wont hold the oil in them, so, after the car has sat for a bit or overnight, the oil seeps out and it takes a minute or so to fill up. Or, if it/they are really bad, they don't fill up and stay noisy and wear out.
The problem with the tappets on this car is the price of the original ones - approx £200+vat EACH - there are 16 of course. However the garage have recommended an aftermarket one from Flying Spares, which are £20 each. Alarm bells sound - how can they be so much cheaper? The fact is £20 is the normal price for a tappett - the Bentley price is completely ludicrous. I called Flying Spares to sound them out. The line they have - which I have no reason to disbelieve, is virtually nobody buys the original ones except people where money is literally no object in places like the Middle East. Apparently they even sell them into the main agent network.
Anyway - the aftermarket ones are going in the engine - worst case, it's £600 labour to strip all the stuff off the engine to get at them again - which is not great, but not the end of the world.
Heads are going off today to be checked over and light skim.
Edited by matt5791 on Tuesday 31st January 23:32
No problem - not really any upgrades, although it is believed the head gaskets are better than the originals.
But we have taken the opportunity to go through the heads and do general maintenance so they are back to "as new" as possible. Eg. re-cutting and bedding in the valve seats.
The whole job has been straight forward because I didn't cook the engine. It's something to really watch out for with any vehicle, and especially this one - it could turn it into something much more serious.
But we have taken the opportunity to go through the heads and do general maintenance so they are back to "as new" as possible. Eg. re-cutting and bedding in the valve seats.
The whole job has been straight forward because I didn't cook the engine. It's something to really watch out for with any vehicle, and especially this one - it could turn it into something much more serious.
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