R8 Rover 214 Head Gasket Change

[gadgetgricey]

How easy is the above for a total numpty:

 

Had a total mare of a morning and this is the final icing on the cake.

 

My 214 went in for its MOT last week, failed on welding a big blow on the exhaust. As far as I'm concerned car was running fine with no HGF signs. (Oil water etc etc)

 

Any hoo garage did the welding and replaced the exhaust and rang me this morning. I thought to say car is ready for collection, but no the HGF has gone.

 

So that's a £180 bill (MOT Included) for a car that cant pass its MOT.......

 

Cant afford the cost of the head gasket repair at the moment (and not sure if I want to blow £300 on a £300 car (+ £180 just spent), so was thinking about putting it in the garage and having a crack myself.

 

Wise move or just bridge it....

[phil_lihp]

I'm about to do the same myself so will be interested to see what folks say about this. Mr B makes it look easy... We shall see!

[gadgetgricey]

I'm about to do the same myself so will be interested to see what folks say about this. Mr B makes it look easy... We shall see!

Found a detailed explanation/set of instructions on one of the rover forums, but its been there a while so all the pics have expired.

[fordperv]

mr boll to the beige courtesy phone please

[twosmoke300]

Easy enough job on a K , few things to watch for

 

They time up at 90deg btdc so No1 piston isnt at the top

Im sure they use the same cam pulleys for in and ex so mark up well

Dont turn engine with head off

Check all liners height with a straight edge

[saucedoctor]

Worth checking it's not just the inlet manifold gasket that's gone. I've heard of a few places over the years dianosing this as OMGHGF.

[gadgetgricey]

Right this is confusing, well for me anyway.

Picked the car up late last night from the garage so not had time to check until just now.

 

Car starts fine with no issues.

No water in the oil that I can see.

No oil in the water that I can see.

 

Temp gauge goes from 08:00 > 10:00

Started off at 08:00 after about 10 mins creeped up to 09:00 and stayed there for another 10 mins.

Crept up to 09:15 but no higher and stayed there for another 10 mins until I turned engine off.

 

Top radiator hose was hot, but not as hot as I was expecting, and seemed got hotter when it was squeezed.

Did not seem to have the flow of water there that I was expecting.

 

Also heater in car did not get warm even though temp gauge etc etc.

 

Took carp of expansion tank "slooowly" when hot and there was a bit of pressure release but nothing really to speak off, just overflowed and then bubbled over slightly.

 

 

The inlet manifold gasket is goosed as had asked them to do after the MOT. They never got to that as diagnosed HGF failure whilst warming car up for emissions test.

 

Any suggestions for anything else to check would be great, but is concensus that garage are right or wrong?

 

Cheers all.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

If the IM gasket is jiggered, just change it and see where youre at. There's no way of seriously evaluating an HG on a K series with a known pappered IM gasket.

[vulgalour]

I'll second that ^

 

I've had to do the IM gasket twice (first gasket was rubbish, if you're on the moulded rubber one get the green type not the black type) on my 414 and both times it was making signs that could have been misconstrued as OMGHGF.  A knackered IM gasket can cause the system not to pressurise properly and indeed was on mine, replacing the gasket allowed the system to pressurise anew.  It's a relatively easy job and can make quite a large difference to how the car performs.

[gadgetgricey]

Well drove it around for an hour this evening with no overheating.

Then sat for half an hour with it idling with no issues.

 

Taking it back to the garage tomorrow to get emissions test done which should hopefully get MOT and then more time to sort out issues.

 

First on the list would be inlet manifold gasket and then go from there.

 

Cheers all, will update tomorrow.

[phil_lihp]

Sounds like you might be lucky. Mine is pressurising the coolant quite severely, a new IM gasket didn't help that particlar problem so it's off with its head if I ever manage to find the time.

[gadgetgricey]

Well step 1 is out of the way. Car has passed its MOT today

 

Was planning on having a look at the IM gasket the weekend, but now found out I'm in work.

 

Thanks for all the advice, will update when I've got it changed over.

[vaughant]

Great news!!!

I've never owned a rover but I have owned (since 2002) a BMW e36 so I know all about cooling issues.

I cooked mine eventually but mainly down to poor advice from others, mine actually worked fine for 100k miles in 7 years so I can't complain really. Trusting some idiot to do the job I should have done myself was my downfall.

Ended up buying another for its motor which was perfect to be fair, e36's are pennies now, well they were 4 years ago. Just need to find time to get all the niggles done and back on the road.

It will be something very simple I'm sure, I remember the e36 needed heaters on hot and ignition on to open valve to fill the system as the matrix took quite a bit of coolant.

I think the main cause of its woes was actually after doing a water pump my mate* reckoned the fan was on the wrong way round, ie blowing not sucking but it wasn't, although it did always seem a bit warm so I went with it, never really ran right after that, I did swap it back but the pattern water pump he supplied was pish, so it ended up getting done again, ran fine then for a year or so and it all started again.

Never got to the bottom of it, got royally fucked over by others and that was that.

I put a 325 m50 motor in to replace the m52 328 and if anything it seemed quicker!!!