Steel seal changing oil

[Cakey_]

My grandfather in law phoned me yesterday saying the head gasket had gone on his 208, his garage quoted him 1.5k supposedly. Even a more sensible price isn't really worth them paying for. He's in his 90s she doesn't drive and they do no more than 20 miles a week. He's contemplating buying another cheap car as a run around.

I've suggested we try putting some steel seal in it as there's mixed reviews online about the stuff, I know one person that's used it personally and it did the job for them.

So the blow in the gasket he has is between water and oil. Obviously I'm going to need to change the oil. But would you use the sealant and run the car for 30 mins before with the chocolate milkshake in the sump? Or would you change the oil, fill with steel seal, even if it works I mean some will still find its way into the oil so not sure wether to change the oil before or after the treatment. Don't really want to be changing it twice if I can help it.

[Skyedriver]

K-Seal in the water, will possibly block the thermostat but I've used it before with success

[GreenV8S]

I don't think the order of flushing oil and coolant and so on will be particularly important in that situation. Obviously you won't be driving it hard until the whole process is complete and it has clean oil and coolant in it.

[Cakey_]

Well I'm not sure how we'll the whole process worked. I ditched the oil beforehand wasn't actually that bad but did it to be cautious.
I'm not sure if the car had a dodgy stat before but it wouldn't get upto temp on tickover,I left it running for about 40 minutes, it was also a complete arse to bleed so I was more worried I had an air lock somewhere.

[GreenV8S]

Cakey_ said:

I'm not sure if the car had a dodgy stat before

If you can get a hand on the rad / top hose you can usually feel the surge of heat when the stat opens. If it just gradually warms up along with the rest of the engine, the stat probably isn't doing its job.

[Cakey_]

Literally couldn't get it to get hot parked up, it was bizarre. I found the bleed valves and bled it all. But after nearly 40 minutes engine running and holding it at 2k for sblut 5 minutes the gauge read 90° and the top pipe was still cold.
Strangely though within 10 minutes of driving it was lovely amd hot as were all pipes.

I admitted defeat with it,if it breaks it breaks if it works it works. They're no worse off as it's pretty much scrap anyway with a blown HG

[GreenV8S]

If you've drained the cooling system and not refilled it using the right procedure for that vehicle it's quite likely you had air pockets in the cooling system and these can prevent it working properly. It would not be at all unusual for these to gradually work their way out of the system over the next few thousand miles.