is me heed cracked?

reet the defender 300tdi is losing water, like a ltr every 200 mile ish. steam/white smoke ****es out the exhaust at tick over when warm. so im guessing thats where my water is going.
oil is clean, and not going up or down. no pressure in water system either. engine runs fine.
so i think its pointing to a cracked head, but what i want to know is can it still just be a gasket with them symptoms?
or is me heed cracked!!

it would have to be cracked in a port ,remove manifolds and see if any are washed clean

jamesmartin said:

it would have to be cracked in a port ,remove manifolds and see if any are washed clean

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cheers james, gonna get manifold off tomorow and have a look. if its is washed clean do you reckon its cracked then?

yes

jamesmartin said:

yes

Click to expand...

cheers lets hope its not then!

It could still be a gasket, either way the heads coming off.

jamesmartin said:

it would have to be cracked in a port ,remove manifolds and see if any are washed clean

Click to expand...

manifolds off, not washed clean in any of the zorst ports!!

so where does that leave me? it definitely losing a lot of coolant, lots of grey white smoke pluming out exhaust on tick over when warm.
i though the zorst was blowing as its developed a loud drone near engine at revs under load but manifold gasket looks ok and turbo to zorst gasket is fine.. think i will stick it back together for it MOT on monday then get the head off for a look.

right head is off.
first thing i noticed was a lot of coolant in the rocker/tappets area!
gasket looks ok! zorst outlets are nice and sooty so doesnt look like coolant been going through them!
here are some pics, no cleaning done just how it all looked when it came off.
can anyone one see anything suspect?






gasket off


top off gasket


head no cleaning

its been passing gas on rear of no4 and quite possibly to the 3 inner waterways

unless ports are washed clean head doesnt look cracked

james can i ask how you know that? (im learning and would like to understand whats happened) is it something on the block?head? gasket?
why would it pass gas if the gasket is intact? sorry for all the questions, as i say just trying to learn

fire ring mark on gasket block and head should be bright all the way round ,no4 shows staining to the rear as do cylinders to the 3 waterways, head face is sooty and not washed clean ,cant see inside ports ,if gasket actuall blew through youd have water gushing out of header tank as 1/2 litre of air and fuel was pushed into cooling system ,most slight loss of coolant is staining

just looked back ports are ok ,id just clean up and put another 3 hole gasket on(err5263) if head less than 2-3 thou bent, with new manifold gasket to(err3785)

Cheers James . Yea ports are definitely very sooty! Yea I'll clean it up tomorrow and get me feelers in . Should be ok as it's not been overheated!

got all the surfaces cleaned up today ready for new gasket. head aint warped!! sweet!

got it all back together last week. so far so good! havent seen any smoke out the zorst so fingers crossed its sorted!

Good news

sh*tb*lloxtw*tc*ntf*cker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
still losing water and smoked like a b*stard last night!
looks like head comin off again
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g-mack said:

sh*tb*lloxtw*tc*ntf*cker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
still losing water and smoked like a b*stard last night!
looks like head comin off again
####

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was it ok then suddenly started again

pretty much yea, havent done a lot of miles since it was done. last night though sat at traffic lights it was pouring out!! engine warm.