Nope, just a home DIY'er. I've had numerous cars that have needed fairly major work (2 engine swaps on a 205 GTi plus a headgasket, snapped cambelt on an mx5, broken a good few cars for spares), so I'm fairly competent with the spanners
So, I broke it..
- Thread starter -westy-
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Nope, just a home DIY'er. I've had numerous cars that have needed fairly major work (2 engine swaps on a 205 GTi plus a headgasket, snapped cambelt on an mx5, broken a good few cars for spares), so I'm fairly competent with the spanners
An old washing up bowl that we use for oil now
Had to use a couple, as it filled the first one fairly swiftly 
Nope, it's being stored in a 5 gallon drum, it'll be disposed of at the tip or scrapyard.
I can get away with a fair bit of degreasing, chances are I'll drop the sump as well to get as much as possible out of the engine itself. All the other crap that's in there should come out when I change the oil and filter again (500 miles or so later).
so, what's the head gasket like? changing it anyway whilst the cam cover is off? aren't they like 50 pence?
I think he will change it when he changes the head
Yorkshire tightfirst would try and re-use an old one though
so, what's the head gasket like? changing it anyway whilst the cam cover is off? aren't they like 50 pence?
The head gasket itself looks fine to be honest, although I haven't given it a thorough inspection - no point really, as I'm replacing it regardless
Typical signs of failure, oil and water mixed all over the shop. A lot of the mess was due to one of the water bungs shearing and leaving a hole in the head:
Where is the part that caused the failure in this photo?
As someone whose extent of mechanical knowledge stops at changing the spark plugs I must say that I admire your attitude. As soon as the baby poo started coming out I'd have been phoning the local scrap yard
Massive OT but why do we still have Christmas smileys
Where is the part that caused the failure in this photo?
As someone whose extent of mechanical knowledge stops at changing the spark plugs I must say that I admire your attitude. As soon as the baby poo started coming out I'd have been phoning the local scrap yard
Massive OT but why do we still have Christmas smileys
It's the bit right in the middle, the big hole with jagged edges
No christmas smileys here!
Precisely this. Will be following this thread with interest.
It's the bit right in the middle, the big hole with jagged edges
No christmas smileys here!
Doh! I did wonder if that was it but it looked quite a major chunk to be missing
Best of luck with it, I think it is great that people like yourself aren't phased by things like this. If everyone took my approach we'd have no older cars on the road!
Ok, so after leaving the engine to drain itself overnight, I found that it looked a lot less serious:
Degreaser has been applied, just waiting for it to soak in.
The bottom end currently looks like this:
All that is going to be drained, remembering to also clear the bolt holes with a syringe, otherwise it'll crack the block when I torque the head bolts down (water doesn't compress)
I've had the new head checked over at a local machine shop, and it's dead flat - the straight edge was rocking on a 2 thou feeler gauge
Degreaser has been applied, just waiting for it to soak in.
The bottom end currently looks like this:
All that is going to be drained, remembering to also clear the bolt holes with a syringe, otherwise it'll crack the block when I torque the head bolts down (water doesn't compress
)I've had the new head checked over at a local machine shop, and it's dead flat - the straight edge was rocking on a 2 thou feeler gauge
Soldato
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compressed air if you have it, could rig up a bike pump maybe (unless by syringe you mean in the compression type way rather than suction?(which would also work of course
))
Caporegime
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OP when he opened it up
compressed air if you have it, could rig up a bike pump maybe (unless by syringe you mean in the compression type way rather than suction?(which would also work of course
I meant suction, we have a large hypodermic style syringe, along with a short length of narrow hose