Disco 1 Head gasket fail after serpentine belt broke
- Thread starter KiwiTDI
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The great James Martin, who sadly no longer posts on here, once told us how much of a warp could be pulled straight simply by bolting a head down. I haven't looked for it and cannot remember the figures, but it looks as if yours fits in the zone!
KiwiTDI
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Its back together, too late to do a road test, coolant started leaking from the expansion tank cap after 15 mins on idle, but i am hoping that is because i brimmed the tank during adding coolant.
i could not get it to start at first, but eventually worked out to turn the engine ( until the lever on the lift pump did something), and cracked the bleed bolt on the fuel filter and pumped until fuel came out of that, it then eventually got going on the starter but it seems a bit rough on idle, maybe i have buggered an injector but i only wiped the crud off the dirty one’s.
lots of copper washers left over from the decoke gasket set stc2802, i hope i did not accidentally fit old washers back, i did replace the washers at the bottom of the injectors but no others, there were no new leak pipe washers oddly.
i could not get it to start at first, but eventually worked out to turn the engine ( until the lever on the lift pump did something), and cracked the bleed bolt on the fuel filter and pumped until fuel came out of that, it then eventually got going on the starter but it seems a bit rough on idle, maybe i have buggered an injector but i only wiped the crud off the dirty one’s.
lots of copper washers left over from the decoke gasket set stc2802, i hope i did not accidentally fit old washers back, i did replace the washers at the bottom of the injectors but no others, there were no new leak pipe washers oddly.
Last edited:
KiwiTDI
Active Member
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Done 50km so far and no sign of pressurisation in the cooling system, so I guess no crack in the head, only time will tell if the HG will hold up. Some observations:
1) all valve clearances were non existent post new HG, suggesting the erling type HG ends up thinner than the MLS.
2) I buggered an injector by turning it anti-clockwise when struggling to remove it, hence undoing the thread in the middle of its body, this sheared the little pins inside resulting in the engine running on 3 cyls post HG replacement. The car would still do over 80k but was well down in power and lumpy on tickover. I managed to bodge a fix to the buggered injector (a small nail was used in place of a broken pin ) and I will order a new injector some time soon).
3) The engine starts MUCH better (it spins over “evenly” on the starter as opposed to go quick/slow, then starts on all 4 instead of 1 then 2 the 3 etc) and it runs MUCH better too, suggesting a leak between cylinders has been affecting the engine for many thousands of miles, but eventually this HG failure progressed to pressurisation and coolant loss.
4) The HG job is generally a PITA …..torquing 18 bolts to 4 different settings takes an hour to do properly, it’s essential to take yr time and carefully note down when each bolt has been torqued to the next setting. I also spent an hour very carefully cleaning the head gasket face (so as not to scratch it), and the same on the block. If I had to do the whole job again I could probably get it done easily in a day.
5) A bit of head warp can PROBABLY be ignored
6) Despite knowing the pitfalls of getting air out of the (completely drained) cooling system, and various tips and tricks it still took me a couple of goes to get all the air out and heater working……great care is needed to get the heater working before test driving the car.
Thanks for the help and encouragement from this forum
1) all valve clearances were non existent post new HG, suggesting the erling type HG ends up thinner than the MLS.
2) I buggered an injector by turning it anti-clockwise when struggling to remove it, hence undoing the thread in the middle of its body, this sheared the little pins inside resulting in the engine running on 3 cyls post HG replacement. The car would still do over 80k but was well down in power and lumpy on tickover. I managed to bodge a fix to the buggered injector (a small nail was used in place of a broken pin ) and I will order a new injector some time soon).
3) The engine starts MUCH better (it spins over “evenly” on the starter as opposed to go quick/slow, then starts on all 4 instead of 1 then 2 the 3 etc) and it runs MUCH better too, suggesting a leak between cylinders has been affecting the engine for many thousands of miles, but eventually this HG failure progressed to pressurisation and coolant loss.
4) The HG job is generally a PITA …..torquing 18 bolts to 4 different settings takes an hour to do properly, it’s essential to take yr time and carefully note down when each bolt has been torqued to the next setting. I also spent an hour very carefully cleaning the head gasket face (so as not to scratch it), and the same on the block. If I had to do the whole job again I could probably get it done easily in a day.
5) A bit of head warp can PROBABLY be ignored
6) Despite knowing the pitfalls of getting air out of the (completely drained) cooling system, and various tips and tricks it still took me a couple of goes to get all the air out and heater working……great care is needed to get the heater working before test driving the car.
Thanks for the help and encouragement from this forum
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