Head gasket tale of woe

So I've been topping up the coolant weekly on my 04 D2 / V8. It loses about 1/3 each time. No funny coloured oil, no pressurised expansion tank, or pool of coolant under the car. It runs fine otherwise, and no overheating.

There is a 'waterfall' noise which I can almost get rid of after a couple of bleeds, but like a fart in a phone box, after a while it always seems to come back.

Looking around from under the car, I can follow a coolant trail back up to the front left corner of the LH Cylinder head.

I was thinking no rush just yet, but planning ahead, I'm thinking about doing the gaskets and swapping out the heads.

Has anyone had experience with the Turner heads? Price from their website is £590 / pair. I'm assuming that's a changeover so I have to give them the originals back?

The water passages are at the front and rear of the heads, both for the block connections and the valley gasket, so you need to eliminate possible sources.

Heads by themselves don't really give much trouble, despite all of the horror stories you hear, most have gasket issues, either cr*p quality gaskets or something related.

If it was me, I'd pull the inlet manifold off first and have a look. Leakage from the valley gasket normally pools in the gasket area as the retaining bars stop water coming out of that area.

If it is definitely the head gasket, then get the heads off and see if they have been skimmed previously, if not then they will take a light skim to true the face up.

Look at the block face and see if there is any serious corrosion. If you've been using the correct coolant it should be light.

Don't buy gaskets off ebay, but a decent brand like Reintz, they have the right sized valve stem seals in the kit!

I've got a spare pair of heads all skimmed and ready to go, but so far haven't needed them, but always nice to know they are there if needed.

Peter

Thanks Peter, I'll give it a try - inlet manifold & a valley gasket I think even I can manage.

Small but important tip:

The heads sit on two dowels each side, but there is a lot of clearance between the dowels and the holes in the heads.

Assemble the heads loosely with the bolts but don't start tightening yet. Fit the inlet manifold with the old valley gasket and one bolt at each corner.

Nip those four bolts up firmly, so the manifold is aligned with both heads.

then go through the normal tightening procedure. Remove manifold and fit new valley gasket.

This ensures that the inlet manifold is not on the skew with the head gasket faces.

Peter

I took a bunch of pics this afternoon, trying to show the source of the coolant leak.

It's only on the left hand side of the engine and looks like it could be the head gasket(?) What do you think?

98418665 said:

I took a bunch of pics this afternoon, trying to show the source of the coolant leak.

It's only on the left hand side of the engine and looks like it could be the head gasket(?) What do you think?

Click to expand...

Doesn't 'look' right to me for a head gasket, I still think valley gasket, can you look down into the valley area below the inlet manifold and see any liquid pooled in there?

It looks more like it has been blown back by the radiator fan, those block bolts are above the joint, and to get that much over their heads would involve a lot of fluid running out.

Peter

Ok here's some more pics. I can only see down that far, when looking just to the right of the alternator. The view from same side as the leak is a bit limited due to the aircon compressor.

As far as I can tell there is no pooling. What do you reckon?

Certainly looks dry enough in the pictures.

That really only leaves the head gasket, assuming you haven't got a leak from another source, like heater hoses, throttle body etc etc.

Peter


Peter

Exploratory surgery....

Thought I'd remove a few items to get a better look and try to confirm 100% where the leak was coming from. So I got busy tonight taking off the AC compressor, bracket and steering pump.

It all went well except for the final bit of getting the bracket+steering pump off the long bolt. Bit of a bastard but got it in the end. (Maybe the fan was supposed to come off beforehand?)
Also, is that the normal placement for the knock sensor cable?

Anyway here's the pics. Any comments?

Here's some more pics after a bit of a clean up. The water pump weep hole and area look completely dry, and the bearings feel ok.

Both sides of the upper front cover behind the water pump were filthy. So I'm still none the wiser as to if it's a valley gasket, head gasket/s or both. And is it just a coolant leak, or perhaps an oil leak as well?

I also found some coolant leaking down the other side as well, but no where near as bad as the left. It also looks like it might be coming from somewhere near the front.

Any more thoughts?

After a bit of a clean up:



Weep hole and area nearby clean and dry: