Head gasket blown, pre serp chim :(
Discussion
oh bollox........
I'll start at the beginning:
I noticed the other week that the heater was blowing cold instead of hot. I resolved this by topping up the coolant (which actually wasn't low - few inches from the tope of the swirl pot) and squeezing the hoses in the engine bay. Started blowing hot air again, great.....one thing I did notice though is the valve under the dash that allows hot water into the matrix leaks slightly when opening/closing.
Yesterday I got stuck in traffic for quite a long period but the chim didn't overheat, ran fine. Then took it onto a dual carriageway and opened it up bit, looked in the rear view mirror and saw quite a bit of grey smoke, damn. First thing I thought is head gasket.........
Today driving home the car was running perfectly,.....well until it overheated after about an hour(again with more spirited driving) but no smoke this time. Pulled over straight away, heater was blowing cold air again. Didn't want to risk driving it any further so called out the recovery service. When the guy turned up I hopefully suggested it may be an air lock so we removed the expansion cap and ran the engine whilst topping it up. Heater started blowing hot air again , great! but I noticed a lot of condensation blowing out the exhaust which to be honest I imagine is coolant. Also when starting the car now it stutters and is very hesitant to start. Stangely though there is no mayo in the oil cap and the car hasn't lost or boiled any coolant.
Does anyone have any idea of a price to get this done? I was imagining about £500 for new gaskets but I'll make some calls tommorow.....
Cheers,
Upset Chimaera owner
I'll start at the beginning:
I noticed the other week that the heater was blowing cold instead of hot. I resolved this by topping up the coolant (which actually wasn't low - few inches from the tope of the swirl pot) and squeezing the hoses in the engine bay. Started blowing hot air again, great.....one thing I did notice though is the valve under the dash that allows hot water into the matrix leaks slightly when opening/closing.
Yesterday I got stuck in traffic for quite a long period but the chim didn't overheat, ran fine. Then took it onto a dual carriageway and opened it up bit, looked in the rear view mirror and saw quite a bit of grey smoke, damn. First thing I thought is head gasket.........
Today driving home the car was running perfectly,.....well until it overheated after about an hour(again with more spirited driving) but no smoke this time. Pulled over straight away, heater was blowing cold air again. Didn't want to risk driving it any further so called out the recovery service. When the guy turned up I hopefully suggested it may be an air lock so we removed the expansion cap and ran the engine whilst topping it up. Heater started blowing hot air again , great! but I noticed a lot of condensation blowing out the exhaust which to be honest I imagine is coolant. Also when starting the car now it stutters and is very hesitant to start. Stangely though there is no mayo in the oil cap and the car hasn't lost or boiled any coolant.
Does anyone have any idea of a price to get this done? I was imagining about £500 for new gaskets but I'll make some calls tommorow.....
Cheers,
Upset Chimaera owner
Edited by BagOfOldRats on Sunday 27th January 15:22
Before you get too far I'd suggest you do a few basic tests.
Keep monitoring the coolant and oil levels.
Look for oil/scum contaminating the coolant.
Look for froth being blown out of the pressure cap if you rev the engine with the cap off.
Look for large amounts of emulsion under the rocker covers, but don't panic if you see small amounts.
Get the cooling system pressure tested.
If the above tests indicate there may be a problem, have an HC test done on the coolant, and have a leakdown test (not compression test) run on the engine.
None of these tests are expensive or difficult but the last two require specialised test equipment.
It may be something simple such as a leaky water pump seal allowing air to be pulled into the system and accumulating into an air lock inside the heater. Once you have had air in the system it may take weeks or sometimes even months to completely shift it.
I do suggest you watch the engine temperature like a hawk and make sure it isn't overheating though.
If the head gasket has failed it's more or less certain that either a leakdown test or coolant test will show a problem, so I'd be reluctant to get the engine stripped until you have more tangible evidence of a problem.
Keep monitoring the coolant and oil levels.
Look for oil/scum contaminating the coolant.
Look for froth being blown out of the pressure cap if you rev the engine with the cap off.
Look for large amounts of emulsion under the rocker covers, but don't panic if you see small amounts.
Get the cooling system pressure tested.
If the above tests indicate there may be a problem, have an HC test done on the coolant, and have a leakdown test (not compression test) run on the engine.
None of these tests are expensive or difficult but the last two require specialised test equipment.
It may be something simple such as a leaky water pump seal allowing air to be pulled into the system and accumulating into an air lock inside the heater. Once you have had air in the system it may take weeks or sometimes even months to completely shift it.
I do suggest you watch the engine temperature like a hawk and make sure it isn't overheating though.
If the head gasket has failed it's more or less certain that either a leakdown test or coolant test will show a problem, so I'd be reluctant to get the engine stripped until you have more tangible evidence of a problem.
I was planning to get the seats re-trimmed with that cash.....pwd95 said:
If it was head gasket it would be loosing all its coolant fairly quickly. Sounds more like an air lock in the system. Also eptrol engines blow a surprisingly large amount of water out the zorst. By product of combustion.
Just got off the phone to my local trusted indy. He seems to think the same. Although if I expect the worse then there shouldn't be any hidden surprises. Good news is my breakdown service will take the chim down there free of charge......I'm now waiting for all the TVR reliability jokes at work 
Gassing Station | Chimaera | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff