head gasket

morning folks just had my head gasket go on my 87,000 freelander 1.8 (no surprise there)anyway as im decent with a set of spanners albeit mainly on restoring jap bikes i thought id do it myself .so it turns out not to be a difficult job,i ordered a head gasget online it came with the stretch bolts and various gaskets.as luck would have it my in law has worked at a local motor engineers for years so i could get the head pressure tested and skimmed cheap.the guy who did the head had a warning though "dont whatever you do buy a cheap head gasket set as it will more than likely blow again"doh!this guy has done thousands of rover heads and they keep this firm in work "you must fit a PAYEN head gasket" he nodded sagely as they are a the best quality and last longer .i was tempted to scoff at this info as i had forked out £45 for the kit and go ahead and use the china cheapo but saw sense and paid for the payen gasket £39.i noticed on the e bay site they had sold hundreds of the cheapo kits so maybe they are not all bad?whats your view on this?apart from i shouldnt have bought a gaylander ect ect ect mark.

Its all been covered before, you might want to check out http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f9/freelander-1-8-k-series-hgf-more-data-36863.html

Ran a Payen for 30k miles, I was a big fan till they blistered and weeped oil inter-steel layers


now running a standard gasket from Mike Satur MG at just £14..........................I'm happy

Northern Irelander said:

Its all been covered before, you might want to check out http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f9/freelander-1-8-k-series-hgf-more-data-36863.html

Ran a Payen for 30k miles, I was a big fan till they blistered and weeped oil inter-steel layers


now running a standard gasket from Mike Satur MG at just £14..........................I'm happy

Click to expand...

firstly apologies as this subject will have been covered but old hands must realise some people are new to freelanders (boy im learning fast) anyway i think i made the right decision to go for a payen,but to be honest no amount of quality will make up for a design fault.i would have been gutted if the cheapo gasket let go after a short while and would have berated myself for being tight.the engineer swears by the payen gasket and he has 40 years experience ,for me it was a no brainer,but that doesnt mean the payen gasket will last 50,000 miles its just an engine at the end of the day and even a brand new car can fxxk up the next day.i would have prefered to keep my series 3 landy but my missus shat herself when she first had a go and declared it undriveable women just dont understand.........looking for a defender project now to use as my building trade van ,mark