Freelander 1 1.8 Overheating in Spain

I have just towed a tourist of the N340 and he is parked up on my drive little cream on filler cap intermitent bubbles in header tank so head gasket gone, they have very little money and are due on a ferry in three days time.
Another expat has just turned up with two bottles of Elliotts permanant head gasket and block repair fluid.

My question is has anyone used this sort of catalytic chemical repair fluid, from what I can read it has no particulate or fiber in it and the seal is made by a chemical reaction.

WILL it Work well enough to get him the 1100 miles home or should he leave it here till he is in a position to do something about it

Don't know about the Elliotts stuff but some people have good results from K Seal. Others say it is the devils vomit and even if it gets you home will ultimately kill your engine by blocking vital waterways. Not sure I'd want to trust it for 1100 miles.
Depending on age and condition it might cost more than the car is worth to do anything other than leave it there.

Its a very nice 2006 facelift Targa 2 door allmost mint, the couple have come up from the south through 41c temps there staying with me overnight and will then have to bite the bullet, spares for the k series seem to be in abundance and garage charges a third of what they are in the UK.
I am tempted to lend them one of my TD4's as they seem to be a very genuine pair will have to talk to the guv see what she says.

It won't fix the HG long enough to get them home. It's better to find a HG locally and do a quick HG swap. It'll last longer than the trip home, which will give a chance to save up to do the job properly.

They were extremely lucky to have such a good Samaritan and Land Rover person come to their rescue, well done.

I'm no expert - but 1,100 miles sounds an awful long distance to hope that a K Seal type bodge holds - especially in the temps in Europe at the mo.

If the bits and labour are cheap, assuming they have the cash - seems like an (unwanted) opportunity to fix the car properly. So long as they can get it done immediately I suppose. Presumably its going to need a coolant, oil and filter change what ever option they choose.

Why did you need to tow him in the first place, had it overheated? If I was in his predicament, i.e not enough money and time for a proper fix, I would stock up with spare water and oil and try to get it home depending on how quickly it was overheating. Over the years I've had a few old bangers with failed head gaskets and I've driven them Like that for months. Need to take into account ambient road temperatures and traffic jams. I should add that I'm a risk taker and I realise not everyone else is.

Col

never ever put that kind of stuff into the 1800 engine

teddywood1 said:

never ever put that kind of stuff into the 1800 engine

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To late he has. and was of early monday morning wife spoke to them they were just the otherside of Lyon last night at 20.00 , car has lost no water and eng temp has stayed steady so fingers crossed for them.

fredi250 said:

To late he has. and was of early monday morning wife spoke to them they were just the otherside of Lyon last night at 20.00 , car has lost no water and eng temp has stayed steady so fingers crossed for them.

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I don't know where they are trying to get. But I know it's a good 600 mile drive from Lyon to London. I hope the bodged cooling system holds out. It really would have been better and cheaper to get the HG replaced where labour is cheap and parts are plentiful.
They'll most likely need to replace the engine now it's had this stuff in the cooling system.

I hope they make it home.
Let us know if you can.

Used K Seal on a 1.25 Fiesta engine...worked perfectly and never had problem with overheating etc...Having said that, never stripped the engine down to check the waterways........Regards 'cheap' mechanicing etc here in Spain.....No such thing, especially for an 'extranero' who needs to catch a ferry. Not a case of 'Manana' but most Spaniards wouldn't 'push the boat out' unless they had their palms crossed with gold....Believe me when I say they have 'no heart' at the 'pointy end'. I may have a slightly tarnished view of them but I do live in Marbella!!

Good luck to them(the UK couple)...maybe they will never need to do a head gasket on that K Series?

It all rather depends on the nature of the gasket failure/ coolant leak, but with oil in the coolant that's a head gasket and I wouldn't attempt to drive it home in that condition - and certainly not that distance. But hopefully they'll get lucky

Great support Fredi - they were lucky indeed to find you!

Up date spoke to the Husband Jim last this morning, there back in Basingstoke never needed to top up the cooling system car never missed a beat all the way home. Personally never had anything to do with Barrsleak and the like, but doing some reading this new generation of sealents has no fiber or particle content and is guaranteed not to block waterways.
Anyway he has said at present he is going to run it for as long as it lasts before a proper HG job. I have asked him to keep me posted interesting to see how long it lasts, Elliotts claim its a permanent repair that lasts the lifetime of the engine.

MollyNomad said:

Used K Seal on a 1.25 Fiesta engine...worked perfectly and never had problem with overheating etc...Having said that, never stripped the engine down to check the waterways........Regards 'cheap' mechanicing etc here in Spain.....No such thing, especially for an 'extranero' who needs to catch a ferry. Not a case of 'Manana' but most Spaniards wouldn't 'push the boat out' unless they had their palms crossed with gold....Believe me when I say they have 'no heart' at the 'pointy end'. I may have a slightly tarnished view of them but I do live in Marbella!!

Good luck to them(the UK couple)...maybe they will never need to do a head gasket on that K Series?

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Sorry that your in the middle of rip of Spain. We live further north Valencia generalitat near Peniscola and its a different story here , mind it does help that we all speak fluent idiomatic Castellano and Valenciano. We had to at one time we were the only brit family in 30 miles ,The average labour charge here 20- 25 euro an hour 40 in the Nissan dealers.

fredi250 said:

Up date spoke to the Husband Jim last this morning, there back in Basingstoke never needed to top up the cooling system car never missed a beat all the way home. Personally never had anything to do with Barrsleak and the like, but doing some reading this new generation of sealents has no fiber or particle content and is guaranteed not to block waterways.
Anyway he has said at present he is going to run it for as long as it lasts before a proper HG job. I have asked him to keep me posted interesting to see how long it lasts, Elliotts claim its a permanent repair that lasts the lifetime of the engine.

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Good to hear that they got back okay! Will be very interesting to hear how they get on in the longer term...

Will need to look this stuff up now: how does it work? Sounds quite different to K-seal.

fredi250 said:

Sorry that your in the middle of rip of Spain. We live further north Valencia generalitat near Peniscola and its a different story here , mind it does help that we all speak fluent idiomatic Castellano and Valenciano. We had to at one time we were the only brit family in 30 miles ,The average labour charge here 20- 25 euro an hour 40 in the Nissan dealers.

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Si yo hablar Espanol perfectamente, para los Andaluces pero alguna veses lo Madridlenos no intienda mi....y tampoco los Madriclenos no habler Ingles...

Learning Spanish(albeit with an Andulucian 'twang') is the best thing I have done out here. Helps 'no end'. Most of my experiences are with 'High End' dealerships and specialists.....you won't get any change from 120 Euros an hour down here.....Worst experience was with a Rolls Royce dealership in Madrid.....took a Phantom convertible with a passenger airbag light 'encendido' and all the did was 'charge the battery' after doing a 'thorough diagnstics'. Needless to say on my way back to Marbella it 'came back on'.....Subsequently a new 'Franchise dealership' opened in Marbella 2 months later. Same car, same problem....= 10 pages of faults all fixed under warranty........15000 Euros of parts and labour....The airbag warning light was 'on' because 'someone had damaged a wire to the airbag module(?), either during assembly/PDI. Rolls Royce dealers(stealers) both 'Lost' and 'Earned' their name during this episode...and I lost two days of my life driving quite possibly the best car I have ever driven. And it was more than a 'pose'!!

Mercedes 'stealers' are the 'worst' in my experience....

rob_bell said:

Good to hear that they got back okay! Will be very interesting to hear how they get on in the longer term...

Will need to look this stuff up now: how does it work? Sounds quite different to K-seal.

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Just thinking again about my Fiesta fix it wasn't K Seal but an Amercian product called 'Steel Seal'.....Maybe thats why I didn't have any issues afterwards. Apologies for the confusion. It has some bad experiences as well(on youtube etc) and a couple of make specific forums. All I can say is that I followed theinstructions to the letter and it worked!! Maybe not for everyone...K seal seems to have ceramic fibres and copper in it....not sure about Steel Seal...

Halfrauds do there own seal all stuff. Got me from Dover to Bolton with a cracked block 2in long.

Tony e said:

Halfrauds do there own seal all stuff. Got me from Dover to Bolton with a cracked block 2in long.

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They also sell 'Steel Seal' but I got it off Amazon for 6 quid odd cheaper....

Could used a couple of eggs instead....

fredi250 said:

Up date spoke to the Husband Jim last this morning, there back in Basingstoke never needed to top up the cooling system car never missed a beat all the way home. Personally never had anything to do with Barrsleak and the like, but doing some reading this new generation of sealents has no fiber or particle content and is guaranteed not to block waterways.
Anyway he has said at present he is going to run it for as long as it lasts before a proper HG job. I have asked him to keep me posted interesting to see how long it lasts, Elliotts claim its a permanent repair that lasts the lifetime of the engine.

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That's great news - it is obviously worth taking a punt some times - if only we knew which ones

TBH - that stuff sounds better and more reliable than a standard K Series HG setup!

However, I wonder if they ever need to change the HG, given the description of "the seal is made by a chemical reaction" - whether the head will actually come off!

It sounds amazing stuff. And rather worrying to future K series purchasers. If this stuff has hidden a failed HG, and is only short lived. Then they could get an expensive problem to sort out later on.

At least the FL1 and owners in question got home. Quite surprised about it actually.