I might of bought a car with a duff head gasket (how to get home)

[Vince70]

Before you ask it isn't something K series powered but it looks like I might win an old bmw with a dodgy head gasket (m43 engine) and it's about 60 miles away from my address..

 

Apparently the system has to much pressure but it starts and runs but I don't know about drives lol..

 

I was going to take a gamble and drive it home if I get it and wonder would it be best to not tighten the radiator cap fully so the system doesn't build up pressure and I've got an old bottle of K seal knocking about so may pour that in for good measure..

What's the general consensus

[Bren]

The risk is by the time you get it home it may need more than a head gasket.

[fordperv]

If you can, take the stat out for good measure as well as leaving the cap loose, when the headgasket went on my saph it was in between cylinder and water jacket and was pressurising but wasn't loosing water on a great scale, i took the stat out and drove it with the cap loose and it was OK with no ill effects

[hairnet]

heater on and stop every 10 miles and top up

 

if its 60 miles and not much stop start ya should be ok

 

link to fred

[Vince70]

I think the stat on these is a sealed unit which incorporates the plastic housing so it might be tricky sorting it out on the side of the road.

 

The worst case is I do have Breakdown cover which allows me any car and a trip on the low loader to my doorstep but I was hoping not to use it..

 

I've been spurred on by the Porsche post that had the head gasket changed a few months ago and my mechanical skills just comprise of doing basic repairs and nothing along the lines of a head gasket but as I've just been put off work I thought I need something to keep my brain engaged and I've finished all the DIY stuff around the house...

 

I don't mind but I've already got two identical cars in the same colour in the family and I don't really need a third lol.

But being Autoshite you know it makes sense lol

[Bren]

If you can have a gentle drive it may be possible - but what if you get stuck in traffic?

[chaseracer]

The worst case is I do have Breakdown cover which allows me any car and a trip on the low loader to my doorstep but I was hoping not to use it...

 

Seriously.

[Cavcraft]

K-seal, loads of spare water and phone with Internet so we can all laughter at your fate as you wait for the RAC.

[Junkman]

Breakdown covers are for girls.

 

Get in car, start engine, drive to next petrol station, take photograph.

Then proceed and provide live updates should anything untoward happen.

That's how things are done around here and nowt else.

[barefoot]

Just drive it really, really fast.

[Station]

Frig doing the thermostat on these at the side of the road. Doing it at the side of the road will make you hate life.

Just let it get luke warm and put a load of K-seal in, buy three bottles in case.

 

Taking the rad cap off won't make much difference, it'll just boil off the water in 10 minutes.

[EssDeeWon]

I hope its seriously cheap because this sounds like a right potential ball ache.

 

The seller will be conservative with the truth so its no doubt going to be worse than they say it is.

 

"System has too much pressure" can generally mean "Its fucked"

[twosmoke300]

Slacken rad cap . Heater full and top up as reqd

[rainagain]

I drove my oh's stilo home from the seller with what I was told was HGF. Turned out it was this and the water pump impeller wasn't attached. I loosened the cap on the expansion tank and just stopped to fill up with water. Once repaired it did us a great three years and 60,000 miles, even sold it for a small profit! However as you have breakdown I would just drive it away from the sellers house and give them a call.

[inconsistant]

Porsche post that had the head gasket changed a few months ago

 

Oh, was that me? Funny, I was kind of inspired by a couple of your threads where you tackled stuff where I thought 'no way would I want to have to do that' I seem to remember taking the front of an Audi A4... was that you?

 

If it's any help, first sign my gasket went I was at Brooklands (20 miles away), and got recovered home. But I'm quite risk averse.

[Bear]

I've done the rad-cap/expansion bottle trick - I wouldn't want to do it for more than 10 miles or so, but if the car has an electric fan, short the sender, run heater on full, use gears to keep RPM and effort as low as possible, coast in idle to keep airflow through radiator without adding to the water pressure with high pump speeds (and more explosions per minute adding to heat).

 

Or, just get recovered. I'd go for the latter option - a 'just blown headgasket' is a hell of a lot easier to fix than 'cooked engine, warped head'.

 

K-seal will just make your rebuild more annoying if that's the intention. Fine if you want to see how long it'll last with just K-seal in, but if you're going to do the gasket, spare yourself the hassle of cleaning the cooling system out properly.

[dieselassist]

...the head gasket is probably long since failed in the sellers hands; so if it were me id factor in the price of a new/second hand but good, head 'worst case senario'... if its still 'cheap with this factored in- go for it; worth the grief... being like the rest of us you'll probably buy it anyways....

 

60 miles home isn't a huge distance; should be doable, lots of water, interior heater n blower on 'full'...... Years ago I drove a HGF mk3 golf daily for a month to get in n outta work; I was 'saving up' to do the job - head wasn't that bad after all that - it just needed a 'finger nail skim'...

[Bear]

It all depends on the 60 miles. 60 miles around here can be two hours of running, in traffic or at motorway speeds. 60 miles in the Borders was lovely empty A-roads with plenty of opportunity for stopping and going "Oh poo" and varying driving to be quick and clear, or slow without aggressive idiots making it stressful. I'd drive a car with pressurising coolant from Edinburgh to Jedburgh, but I wouldn't drive the same car from Nottingham to Leicester. Bexhill is quite a trafficky sort of place IIRC. And kinda hilly sometimes, too.

[EssDeeWon]

And don't forget the invention of sods law...

 

You are driving a car with cooling issues, which means you 150% WILL hit traffic on the way home.

[The Moog]

Depends on how long you want to keep the car and what is it worth. 

 

If its a snotter and want it to last a year stick k seal in. More than that then do as much as you feel safe and do breakdown. 

[alf892]

If it pressurising because boiling get recovered.......but if it is just because the gasket is leaking to a pot then just loosed rad cap and drive with stops for top up.

[Tartan58]

pah, 60 miles, that's nothing - many years ago the gasket on my Mk1 Mini went 20miles from the ferry home from Holland, drove it onto the ferry lobbed some k-seal in it then drove from Hull to Edinburgh stopping every so often to top up with water with no ill effects (other than it taking a very long time to get home!)

 

* I would not recommend this approach, and most certainly wouldn't do it myself now being older and wiser!

[andrew e]

It's not boiling rather than pressurising is it? Because the plastic radiator ends have developed an unseen crack @ overheating? BMW's like to do this

[Vince70]

Oh, was that me? Funny, I was kind of inspired by a couple of your threads where you tackled stuff where I thought 'no way would I want to have to do that' I seem to remember taking the front of an Audi A4... was that you?

 

If it's any help, first sign my gasket went I was at Brooklands (20 miles away), and got recovered home. But I'm quite risk averse.

It wasn't me but I did have an identical A4 to that one....

The drive back shouldn't be bad and should take roughly an hour and a half..

I would be driving through Biggin Hill then onto the A21 from the Sevenoaks turning onwards back to the coast fingers crossed...

So hopefully no stop start traffic..

[Vince70]

This is the car...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/181891901546

I've just been outbid but was thinking of maybe going to £200

What do you think..

The original idea was just to buy it for the side sill covers for my car and retrofit the parking sensors fog lamps and colour coded bumpers plus alloys onto my fathers one as both of ours are Hellrot red but I got thinking about repairing it as something to do really .

[FakeConcern]

It wasn't me but I did have an identical A4 to that one....

The drive back shouldn't be bad and should take roughly an hour and a half..

I would be driving through Biggin Hill then onto the A21 from the Sevenoaks turning onwards back to the coast fingers crossed...

So hopefully no stop start traffic..

I often come home that way so  be careful as it's often standing still between Lamberhurst bypass & Flimwell.

[EssDeeWon]

 

 

NEW RADIATOR

 

I wonder if the new radiator fitter didn't bleed the system properly? The BMW cooling systems are a bugger to bleed properly, even the slightest amateur could mess this up and leave an airlock.

[Vince70]

I was thinking that or maybe the stat might be stuck...

But my guess would still be head gasket as apparently the headgasket on these lumps is a known problem if the car doesn't get a coolant change once in awhile and the heads are known to crack on the M43.

 

It's looks on the pictures that the guy deals with a bit of old chod so I would think he would know that though and maybe that's why he's getting shot.

 

But then again it's a gamble on most cars and the car once sorted if it's nice would be worth in the region of £700 to £800 but I would most probably end up giving it away to one of my brothers anyway..

[Bear]

New radiator, now pressurising... either when the radiator went, it's been cooked and warped, or...

 

It hasn't been bled properly and has a major airlock somewhere.

[sierraman]

When it says 'might be head gasket' what that means is he's had it down the garage and they have told him it IS the gasket.

 

Still I wouldn't rule out the actual cap itself if the system is overpressurising, its recommended as a service item on some cars.

 

With some of the straight sixes in Bmws though once it's boiled over the head is usually fucked.