Head gasket gone, now the battle of the exhaust bolt (one of them anyway)

cracked block behind line maybe ,your head gasket was leaking but that could be due to other fault or age and coincidence

I had a good look over the block once the heads were off, as i know how these engines can be prone to such things.
There was no evidence to suggest that i had a cracked block and i went over all of it, using a bit of dirty oil, to try and highlight any cracks or marks.

I'm wondering if the head bolts could do with an extra turn of a few degrees.

you wouldnt see a crack as its down behind the liner and gap between liner and block appears when hot youd need to pressurise block to see

Would it manifest itself as a slight water leak or as a jet of steam?

when pressurised with head off it you get water bubbling out between the 2 ,with head on and engine running youd get pressurisation of cooling system

How i could i test for a cracked block?

It had been fine up until today so i am kind of concerned why now and what's the cause.
I think i'm going to bite the bullet and take into my local garage.
Goodness knows what the cost will be but time will tell i guess.

you cant unless you strip heads and front cover off ,but whilst doing that you look for obvious other reasons ,but then block can be filled mostly with water and pressurised using an airline and blanks to cover the 2 head water ways and front

Definitely one for the garage then i think.

Thanks for the advice James.

might have been an idea to replace the thermostat and radiator hoses and get the radiator tested at the same time. there could be an airlock in the system too.
good luck

Ok, Here is an update on the car.

I've taken it to the garage as i just haven't had the time to sort out the issue, if i can call it that, myself.

I popped into the garage earlier today to drop off my other motor and i asked what they had found.
Surprisingly, they told me that they had the motor running for half an hour yesterday and for around the same time this morning.
At no point did it overheat or show any signs of a vehicle with an overheating issue.
They had performed a test on the coolant and there was no trace of combustion gases in the system.

I'm not sure if they have pressure tested the cooling system yet but will find out more tomorrow.
I will, should there be nothing found to be wrong, pop to my nearest motor factors and buy a new thermostat and drop it in as a precaution.

Thoughts?

The mrs went to her mums today, which is about 100 miles from where we live currently.
Car had no issues.
Her journey back wasn't so uneventful however as around 30 miles in the car started to overheat while in slow moving traffic.
She pulled over and allowed the car to cool down before continuing on.
The irony. The car was fine all the way back after the short stop and travelling along through normal running traffic.

So, head gaskets changed, and the thermostat and fan belt were changed yesterday.
I'm thinking that the water pump is next on the cards and another attempt at flushing out the radiator too.

I'm just stumped as to why this is happening, and it does so randomly too.

Wot fan are you running ellec , viscous
And are they in good working knick

If viscous when you pull over with the engine on the hot side the coupling should be locked up , you should be able to tell buy the amount of air being drawn and displaced through the rad
Then STOP the engine to feel if its locked up
Driving along you will have good water flow from the water pump through the engine and rad and air flow around the engine
When you pull up in traffic you rely on the cooling fans

Hi,

Its running the standard viscous fan and it works fine.
I used a piece of tissue paper to see if it would draw it in and it did.

I think I've found the problem.
I noticed that there was a wet streak under the bonnet and the water pump seemed to be making a lot of noise.
After a few minutes I noticed drops of water being thrown up in my face if I looked over the water pump pulley wheel.
I've got a new one on order and should be here on Tuesday.
I'll report further once I've got it replaced and tested.

Quick update everyone.

I changed the water pump yesterday and since then the car seems to be fine.
The temperature needle stayed centered through the journey both me and the wife took today, which was quite a distance, and I checked the top radiator hose as soon as we pulled onto a car park at our destination.
When I gripped the hose it felt firm but was still easily pliable.
Not like on previous times when it was rock hard and I couldn't squeeze it in.

So, all in all, the motor is running as normal.

Good Man

Or good Car

Thanks Iann.

I think i can call this job solved.
It's been a couple of days since the water pump was replaced and so far, the car has kept its coolant and remained at an even running temperature.
Even in traffic.
I also sorted a running issue with my LPG where it wouldn't even run a distance when switched over to LPG.
That was my fault because those connectors i talked about in one of my previous posts were meant to go between the injectors and the electrical connectors for them.
They shut off the injectors when you switch off the gas.
LPG is still temperamental when at junctions but for continuous journey's it is fine.

Happy days.