Head gasket problems?

[Matty Boy]

Hi guys,

Right, I have a deep knocking noise at lower revs, at low speed in a lower gear - slightly concerning............exhaust gaskets? On start up it's pretty smokey(white, it's usually been sat for a week at a time though so I thought nothing of it. The smoke clears entirely when the car has idled for a few minutes, at high revs there is not a hint of smoke either just a clear exhaust. There is no sludge around either coolant or oil caps. Any ideas? I'm lso experiencing heavy coolant loss, but this seems not to be a problem if the car is run at regular intervals.

Yours confused,

Matt

[number 7]

Manifold gaskets would sound more "tappety" than you describe, especially under load. Coolant loss - presumably you cant trace a leak anywhere? Hope it's not the dreaded cracked block / loose liner. I believe one of the other symptoms of this would be a relatively clean piston crown, caused by the coolant washing it. May be possible for an initial check down the plug holes.

7.

[jmorgan]

An indication of my problem was bubbles rising up up the expansion tank on tick over. And plenty of them.


Edited to add, it wasn't a gasket issue as such in the end.

>> Edited by jmorgan on Monday 3rd April 19:07

[GreenV8S]

HGF does sound like a possibility, I think a coolant HC check would be a sensible starting point.