M52 Blown Head Gasket, Most Cost Effective Way To Proceed?

M52 Blown Head Gasket, Most Cost Effective Way To Proceed?

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eztiger328

Original Poster:

198 posts

110 months

Thursday 8th October 2015
quotequote all
Hello,

About a month ago my radiator suffered an air lock that took out my head gasket (ironically just before I was going to have the cooling system overhauled). This was confirmed through a leakdown test which showed exhaust gasses in the coolant. Before the leakdown test was performed the car had been left with the garage over the weekend and a slight misfire was noted when they started it from stone cold on the Monday which they suggested may point to a cracked head aswell.

The engine doesn't exhibit any rough idling and no mayo has made it up to the oil filler cap however I cant run it for long due to over pressure in the cooling system when the car approaches normal running temperature.

To complicate matters around 5 months ago I had a new VANOS & Thermostat fitted and around 3 months ago had a idler pulley , power steering pump and new belts fitted.

What would be the most cost effective way to proceed? Is it worth paying the labour trying to repair the engine or would it be cheaper to get a low mileage replacement dropped in with the new parts that i had recently fitted to the knackered engine swapped over?

eztiger328

Original Poster:

198 posts

110 months

Thursday 8th October 2015
quotequote all
Thanks for the input.

I'm leaning towards dropping in a new engine, from the experience of having the VANOS replaced I know the labour required just to find out if the engine is repairable is not going to be cheap.

I think i'll keep it in the garage for a while and start saving up the pennies, it was going to be retired from daily usage for bodywork restoration anyway.