Fixing a blown head gasket(s)

[Phil_Edge]

After a recover last night, and a rather sudden and unexpected blown head gasket, looking to try and establish where might be able to help with the fixing.

I'm in SW London, close to M25, and get work done at Austec as a rule. Not spoken to anyone yet, but thought I'd put the post up to try and work out whether there's anywhere which comes recommended in this area.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Phil.

[itsallyellow]

Andy at A.P.M

Does the work on the cerbera race cars engines. Knows his way around an AJP!

Mike

[clive f]

out of interest Phil, what sort of mileage had it covered?

[RR Cerbera]

I had the head gaskets on my 42,000 mile Cerbera replaced by Austec last month. One of the head gaskets had failed allowing coolant to drip onto the exhaust manifold, so it was a fairly straightforward engine out, heads off, skim, replace gaskets and refit.

I was impressed by their knowledge and how thorough they were, and I'm an engineer.....

[Phil_Edge]

She's done 48k.

Problem was (current thinking) a leak in the water, ona 3 hour trip back up the M3, but due to no traffic and weather, the engine was actually running at normal temp. despite losing water, and only when I stopped on the M25 did it heat up literally within 2 minutes, and a puff of steam from the reservoir area, then ... stop.

Not long had the water system pressure tested and overhauled / so the RAC chappy (ex-TVR mechanic!) reckoned you can just be unlucky with a head gasket and changes in temperature... what do I know though!

Any clues on how much? From what I read here, £1300 for one side, possibly up to £3.5k for both plus re-skimming etc... eek.

[brogenville]

RR Cerbera said:

I had the head gaskets on my 42,000 mile Cerbera replaced by Austec last month. One of the head gaskets had failed allowing coolant to drip onto the exhaust manifold, so it was a fairly straightforward engine out, heads off, skim, replace gaskets and refit.

I was impressed by their knowledge and how thorough they were, and I'm an engineer.....

Just out of interest, how much did that lot set you back?

I had a head gasket failure too due to a loss of coolant, but ended up buying a new engine just because I had the chance of a rather tasty HC 4.5 just rebuilt with a forged crank. Just be curious to know what its cost me over a basic gasket fix.

By the way, yours must be a RRR now if its been skimmed again!

[RR Cerbera]

I was quoted £2k for the engine removal and refit and about £500 for the skim and replacement gaskets although a few other bits and pieces I had done bumped the bill up a bit!

At the time, nobody had head gaskets in stock and that situation may not have improved with TVR Power's recent fire.

[brogenville]

Cheers. Without being smug, that actually makes me feel pretty good!

That said, my old engine was a 4.2, so the fact that you had a 4.5 RR means that you would have been foolish to do anything other than carry out the repair.