Hi peeps, i notice water spitting from my exhaust when i was preparing car for mot, Obviously not a massive loss as i havent had to top up my water, but no doubt it could get worse if i dont pin-point the fault.

I had a search through forums and found a few mention - Block/combustion gas in water test... whatever that is - but there was a mention on this forum that it can tell you whether the head gaskets on its way out....

Is this correct?

Can anyone describe what this test is and what sort of cost it is?

Also any suggestions of what other leak causes it could be?

Many thanks freelander owners...........

yer injun burns hydro carbons which means it combines the fuel with the oxygen from the air..
now yer hydro in yer hydrocarbon is hydrogen which when combined with oxygen makes water .
because of the heat in yer engine this water takes the form of water vapour or, to the man in the street, steam which you wont see on a warm to hot day. on a cold day at start up you will see this steam coming out the tail pipe in bucket loads. you may also see water as the steam/vapour will condense on its way along the cold exhaust pipe.
so long as it goes away once everything is up to temp i wint bother about it.

if yer injun is up to temp and has bin for more than a few min, and yer still getting water coming out you might wanna do some checks.

first basic one would be to see if yer losing any coolant and to check fer bubbles appearing in yer radiator/header tank.

i got told at college whilst doing me city & guilds many many years ago that for every gallon of petrol used 8 gallons of water is produced, hence one of the reasons that exhaust silencers and pipes rot from the inside + as sir/lord slob states you always have a vapour trail of steam out of the tailpipe

cheers lads you made me feel a whole lot reassured. i had engine running on idle for a few minutes n never saw anymore spitting. blood pressure returned to normal now....

Block/combustion gas in water test

to do this, you need to go to your local friendly garage that has an exhaust gas analyser, or there is a specific tool to the job too.

what you are looking for is evidence of exhaust gases in the coolant header tank which would indicate head gasket failure.

get them to either a)use the special tool, which sucks a small amount of coolant from the header tank and mixes it with a marker chemical. If the marker chemical changes colour, then there are exhaust gases in the coolant, ergo hgf. b) put the probe of the exhaust gas analyser in the top of the header tank (but not in the coolant). Check the readings on the machine, if they are anything above zero, then again there are exhaust gases in the coolant etc etc.

hope this helps

or take filler cap off and look fer grey bubbles appearing

Remember who designed the special tool, who paid to get it in the garage, and how they are going to recover their money ....

I don't want to appear the least bit cynical or to cast aspersions upon the spotless characters and decency and integrity of the main stealers .... but ... do you TRUST THEM?

They are not interested in you or your car - they are interested in your money .... and how to get it into their coffers.

CharlesY