1.8 coolant

Hi guys,
quick question after an explanation

Ok 3 days ago picked up a freelander 3 door year 2000 got it for next to nothng has a 110k on it,drives absolutley fine apart from using water,so whipped off the inlet to find the usual problem of the coolant passage had eaten away, rebuilt it,with chem metal and araldite no more missfiring on tickover,great cheap fix! er no, first long run when hot it starts to missfire on tickover again apart from that no problems plenty power drives lovely but have to add a little coolant after every trip so ok I know its head gasket time, no worries i can do it, but my question is
should i go mls gasket or polymer? in such a quandry as i have had conflicting advice, so will base it on the knowledge here, whoever answers most its going to get that type! gonna order it tomorrow andcross my fingers its the right choice!

regards G

The gasket type will likely depend on what you find when you lift the head off. It's all to do with cylinder liner height. All liners above the block 'deck' and fairly even = MLS. If they vary in height and or some are virtually level with the block face then the polymer gasket will handle the height differences better. Have the head itself checked to ensure it's straight/flat... You might consider cleaning up the casting 'flash' that partially blocks the coolant passages in the head - use a dremel or similar.
Remote PRT thermostat?
New coolant cap / bottle?
coolant pump - cam belt & tensioner?

I cleaned up my coolant passages and fitted a polymer gasket Payen BW750.

In theory mls is best but it needs everything else perfect in the engine. Most here suggest Payne elastomer is good enough for 30 or 40k miles at least and is better for an engine not perfect.

Hiya, well slight problem with that, the car is in spain and spanish lol its just a runaround for the mrs, to use as our house is down a mile long boulder and mud track! which is a dust bowl in the summer, and a skating rink in the winter, which with 20 meter drops off one side of the track,is why we have 4x4,so im gonna buy the gakset kit in uk and then fit it when it gets here, in the meantime the car as said performs well,the head will be skimmed,but as to liner heights i have no idea,as far as i can see the head has never been off,so hoping the liners will be okish, obviously there is no guarantee the head wont be cracked or the liners damaged,But from past exprience i know if you strip an engine here without the parts available,it can sit for months and get totally ruined,just from sitting there,

rangerovertoy said:

Hiya, well slight problem with that, the car is in spain and spanish lol its just a runaround for the mrs, to use as our house is down a mile long boulder and mud track! which is a dust bowl in the summer, and a skating rink in the winter, which with 20 meter drops off one side of the track,is why we have 4x4,so im gonna buy the gakset kit in uk and then fit it when it gets here, in the meantime the car as said performs well,the head will be skimmed,but as to liner heights i have no idea,as far as i can see the head has never been off,so hoping the liners will be okish, obviously there is no guarantee the head wont be cracked or the liners damaged,But from past exprience i know if you strip an engine here without the parts available,it can sit for months and get totally ruined,just from sitting there,

Click to expand...

If you want to read a great thread on 1.8 K engine repair/rebuild read this: http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=146867

Do you have the tools in Spain? torx socket for the head bolts, 10mm allen key for the t' belt tensioner, socket set [3/8] drive is good but you will need s 22mm socket & a breaker bar or 1/2 drive socket set... to get the crankshaft pulley off. A cam pulley locking tool.

Go for the Payne elastomer if in doubt and unless the car has overheated badly there shouldn't be any need to skim the head. Check it with a good straight edge before deciding.
Stuff you'll need:-
Torx socket for the head bolts, something like this.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/3713...ICEP3.0.0-L&ff14=122&viphx=1&ops=true&ff13=80
Torque wrench suitable to read 20Nm
1/4" socket set with a universal joint adapter.
Something to take the crank pulley bolt off. I used this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Clarke-CE...686585?hash=item4af4fb4039:g:niEAAOSwx~JWFX35

Do you know if it has a manual or automatic tensioner? Also the timing belt is different depending on the tensioner.
Make sure you buy a full kit ie Headgasket and assorted gaskets, head bolts, timing belt, water pump, tensioner and alternator and air con belts.

Thanks guys, tools is no problem have everythiing i need, cambelt was done 10 months ago,so shoulld be good?
will be getting a complete kit,Have a windy gun should i need to rmove the pulley, its just Im undecided on which gasket to use, know i should remove the head first, but, a mate removed head off aqn mg then 3 months later caled e to ask if i could put it back together, well every and i mean evry passage way in the bare head had cocoons in it from some sort of horrible creature, took a days full work getting them out and cleaning all the threads up, got no idea what they were, but they were almost as hard as the alloy and iof course i didnt want to damage the newly skimmed head!,

Get an mls gasket kit and then buy a payen bw750 elastomer gasket off amazon for £24. Its not a massive financial outlay and you can return it if you dont use it.

You'll want to get:

Red coolant
10w40 semi synth oil
Cam timing tool for k series
E type socket (female torx) cant recall the size but think it may be a e8 or e12
Breaker bar for crank pulley bolt
Anaerobic sealant for cam carrier assembly (not rtv, i had a nightmare with previous rtv in mine)
Feeler guage to check liner heights
Valve compression tool if replacing valve seals
Oil filter

This is where it gets tricky...

There are two mls kits, a standard and an uprated one. The uprated requires the uprated oil rail to be fitted, but you wont know if it has it unless you look. The uprated has a higher head bolt tension so has different head bolts and oil rail. The standard mls type gasket should be used if you have the old oil rail type.

When you start the job check the liner heights. As said above, if all the liners are proud by 0.002 or 0.003 and equal in height then fit the mls gasket. If the liners are unequal in height or lower than 0.002 then fit the elastomer gasket.

If your timing belt is only 10 months old i'd be tempted to keep it. Just be careful with it so as not to damage it and dont touch it with oily hands or get it contaminated.

If you want to make the timing easier then line the timing marks up, fit the timing tool and put a dot of tipex on the pulleys AND the belt so you can line it up perfectly and keep the timing exact.

If you're doing it single handed then once the belt is in place on a pulley, squeeze a clean socket into the gap between the belt and the timing housing to keep the belt in place. It'll flap everywhere if you dont and its annoying as hell.


And most importantly. TAKE THE TIMING TOOL OUT THE ENGINE AND KEEP IT WELL AWAY FROM THE CAR BEFORE YOU SWITCH THE ENGINE ON.

Made that last mistake myself and its heart wrenching.

ouch, bet it was heartbreaking! ok decided to order both until i strip it an find out how bad it is,or good it is? hopefully,
if i can find the camera will post pics, trouble is I usually tear on and get it all done without taking any pictures then see the camera on the passenger seat during the test drive! doh

Buy a diesel

from what read they have similar problems, but are more difficult and cost more to fix!

I just reread your first post and am wondering if you need a head gasket or replacement inlet manifold. You mentioned whipping off the inlet so assuming you mean inlet manifold. Lots of people jump to the conclusion the hg is faulty when the problem is else where.
I'm in a similar situation myself as the hg was done recently but I'm still loosing water. Strange thing is it will not loose anything for a week or more then in one journey will empty the header tank.

I thought it was inlet fault, fised that and it was fine till climbing a 1 in 4 hill which is my test track here, after reaching the top and letting it tickover it was missfiring again and header tank bubbling, back to barn and whipped it off again but the repair is sound,instead of just number 1 plug showing signs of being washed its now 2 and 3, hence my reasoning its now the head gasket,Thanks for the thought though

mls kit has arrived,so will start the stripddown on thursday, polymer gasket should not be far behind, but may be after xmas,swmbo has banned me from working xmas day,"sigh"

Good luck with it, take your time and be methodical but before you start are you sure it is the HG?
I was thinking HG too but had no common symptoms ie Mayo on the dipstick, or pressure in the coolant but had tried earlier to find a leak and failed. Then last week I found a leak where the heater hose connects at the front of the engine, fixed it and so far so good.

Hi, guys and gals, and have a very merry Christmas where ever you may be!!

Ok head is off,will try to put this in correct order,
no4 was carboned up first thing i noticed, others were clean,washed?
correct me if im wrong but the inlet manifold coolant at no 4 is just a blind hole? i.e it doesn,t go through the manifold unlike the other end at no 1?
beacause i found that it had collapsed as well, when i first repaired the No1 inlet stub i didnt notice how bad the manifold was at no 4, it looked ok didnt see any problem with it,now it has partially collapsed the plastic channel so this could be another fault where water enters the inlet?
so it already had a ml gasket but an early one by the look of the thing had no headsaver on it and the number
stamped in it was 00043 or 5 00,not sure that has any bearing? looking at the head its clear that the water was creeping across on all of the cylinders from the head gasket now when i first repaired it, plug one was clearly white and washed,now all the first 3 are washed white but no4 was a nice shade of brown, also found the dis cap was extremely worn and burnt!

cleaned up the block and measured as best i could the liner protusions,on no4 can only just with a bit of effort get a 2thou feeler gauge under the straight edge when its across the liner, the others it went fairly easily,,problem?
also found where the fire rings mark the head that no4 had a lot less indentation compared to the others?
so your opinions? please? no detectable bore wear on any of the liners either!
,mate of mine who has done 30 or 40 k series head gaskets says i should just use the new
mls gasket and hope?
but should i use the polymer gasket which wont arrive till after xmas anyway,in hopes of a better seal?
briefly consider using the polymer on the block then the mls on top of it lol but some how dont think that would be a good idea, as the car even with the cost of both gaskets owes me less that 300, Im fairly reluctant to throw another engine in it as It may be as bad as this one,? will try to effect a water tight seal on the inlet at the no4 end (found some correct size copper pipe on no1 measured it 4 times cut it to the correct depth then glued and pressed it in postion,hasnt leaked at all)

TIA enjoy your day of gluttony tomorrow!

I got lucky with an MLS gasket on my first K series in my MGF with all liners level but not above the block. So far anyway, it has been fine but has only done a few thousand miles. The second I did, once again all liners level but not above the block and I used an elastomer gasket on it. So far so good with it too despite the scare I got with a leaky hose.
If it were me I would wait for the elastomer one as it is more likely to make a good seal even if it won't last as long. Lets face it if it lasts 40 or 50k miles it could out last the car.

thanks for the input buddy!

I too would fit an elastomer gasket if it were mine!