Best Head Gasket Kit?

Angus-32 · Sep 16, 2020

Hi all,

I am losing small amount of water (about a 1ml a mile) and getting a persistent gurgling sound from the heater matrix under acceleration despite bleed the system a few times I suspect the HG has very early signs of failure.

I brought the car with a suspected HG failure and have done a 1000mile in her just to see if it really was the HG or another leak, after fixing a major leak from the thermostat housing she is still losing a tine bit of water and though I would change the head gasket as a matter of course.

My question is what is the best kit to do this, I don't mind paying a bit more for a good set but its so hard to tell what quality your getting on the internet.

Also I have been warned that it could be a damage cylinder head, has anyone come across this on the 1.8?

Thank in advances.

Nodge68 · Sep 17, 2020

The K1.8 uses a cylinder head that is made of heat treated alloy. The problem comes when it's overheated, as the alloy gets annealed by the overheat, which softens the alloy. This causes the fire rings of the gasket, sink into the head surface shortly after the head gasket has been done, reducing the clamping load, allowing it to leak.

The very best gasket is the latest Payen BW750 with the blue elastomer bead (They are sometimes available on Amazon).

However if the head is soft, then even the best gasket will fail again quickly.

If the engine is loosing small amounts of coolant, then it's worth checking the coolant expansion tank, as those are known to suffer from micro-cracking around the pressure cap. These tiny cracks open up under pressure, and simply allow the coolant to boil off.

Alibro · Sep 17, 2020

Also check for coolant loss at the water pump. Its another common place for leaks.
If you visit the MG/Rover forums you'll find thousands of pages dedicated to HG failure

Colthebrummie · Sep 17, 2020

Are you getting any telltale signs of creamy goo in the oil filler cap or dipstick? Mine leaked a little coolant and the local Indy said he thought it was the HG. I disagreed though, I replaced the expansion tank as Nodge mentioned and that helped but it still lost a little coolant over time. I eventually stopped worrying about it and ensured I checked the level regularly. The fl1 1.8 is a great car, I sold it now but still miss it.

Col

Angus-32 · Sep 17, 2020

Thank for all the replies, its only loosing a very slight amount of water and has had the head done in 2016 by the previous owner but you can never know to what standard the work was carried out.

If it was anything but the 1.8 I would not be looking at the HG, but knowing the infamous problems with the 1.8 I thought it best to just change it all and hope to solve the problem.

My main concern is the heater matrix keep making a gurgling sound, lie air is in it so it more like air is getting into the cooling system more that water getting lost from the system.

I have bleed it 3 times but each time air is finding its way back into the system so I can only think this could be from a cylinder/ HG

Colthebrummie, out of curiosity how many miles did you cover with water loss?

I don't like not being able to trust my car to do long trip in when needed.

Alibro · Sep 17, 2020

Many people don't realise there are two bleed points. One is on the heater matrix pipe and the other is on a copper pipe below the battery.

Colthebrummie · Sep 17, 2020

Angus-32 said:
Thank for all the replies, its only loosing a very slight amount of water and has had the head done in 2016 by the previous owner but you can never know to what standard the work was carried out.

If it was anything but the 1.8 I would not be looking at the HG, but knowing the infamous problems with the 1.8 I thought it best to just change it all and hope to solve the problem.

My main concern is the heater matrix keep making a gurgling sound, lie air is in it so it more like air is getting into the cooling system more that water getting lost from the system.

I have bleed it 3 times but each time air is finding its way back into the system so I can only think this could be from a cylinder/ HG

Colthebrummie, out of curiosity how many miles did you cover with water loss?

I don't like not being able to trust my car to do long trip in when needed.

I had it for about 3 years and I regularly did 400 mile round trips to see a customer. After a 400 mile trip, the level in the expansion tank would drop from max to halfway between max and minimum. This was after I replaced the tank, before that, the tank used to drop by half in the same journey. My Indy mechanic thought it was the HG purely because they are known to fail, he didn't do any tests. Also, he seemed to look down his nose at freelanders and 1.8 petrols in particular.

Col

Angus-32 · Sep 17, 2020

That you for the responses, Colthebrummie, Did you get a gurgling sound from the heater matrix when revving/accelerating?

Nodge68 · Sep 17, 2020

Angus-32 said:
That you for the responses, Colthebrummie, Did you get a gurgling sound from the heater matrix when revving/accelerating?

That's surprisingly common. A cold heater is more of an issue. The heater matrix doesn't bleed to well, as it's a bit if an air trap. It can take a long time for all the air to come out.

Colthebrummie · Sep 17, 2020

Angus-32 said:
That you for the responses, Colthebrummie, Did you get a gurgling sound from the heater matrix when revving/accelerating?

No, I don't remember ever hearing gurgling coming from the heater, but I'm a bit deaf and tend to have the radio louder than usual. Nodge is right though, as long as the heater gets hot, there shouldn't be a problem.

Col

Alibro · Sep 17, 2020

Nodge68 said:
That's surprisingly common. A cold heater is more of an issue. The heater matrix doesn't bleed to well, as it's a bit if an air trap. It can take a long time for all the air to come out.

My first car was an 850cc mini van and when the heater went cold I knew it was time to add water.

How I hated that car.

GrumpyGel · Sep 17, 2020

Alibro said:
My first car was an 850cc mini van and when the heater went cold I knew it was time to add water.

How I hated that car.

My Freelander's like that - heater goes cold, then top up coolant. Usually a couple of days after having topped up the coolant. I don't get gurgling through the matrix through. My old D1V8 would gurgle every time you accelerated. I spent $Ks on the cooling system on that motor, everything about it was changed, including both heads - but it always had issues and always gurgled.

When our old Starlet's engine rattled on startup, I knew it was time to top up the oil

Ran it like that for at least 10 years without issue.

Colthebrummie · Sep 18, 2020

GrumpyGel said:
My Freelander's like that - heater goes cold, then top up coolant. Usually a couple of days after having topped up the coolant. I don't get gurgling through the matrix through. My old D1V8 would gurgle every time you accelerated. I spent $Ks on the cooling system on that motor, everything about it was changed, including both heads - but it always had issues and always gurgled.

When our old Starlet's engine rattled on startup, I knew it was time to top up the oil Ran it like that for at least 10 years without issue.

I think older engine were more tolerant to owner neglect, when I first started driving in the 70's I was told by a few more experienced drivers that when the oil light came on during cornering, it was time to top up the oil.

Col

Nodge68 · Sep 18, 2020

Colthebrummie said:
I think older engine were more tolerant to owner neglect, when I first started driving in the 70's I was told by a few more experienced drivers that when the oil light came on during cornering, it was time to top up the oil.

Col

Modern engines are made to much tighter tolerances than engines built before ~1990, so there was more tolerance to neglect. Modern engines won't tolerate low oil pressure for long, as the bearing running clearances is minute. I measured my FL2 big end running clearance as 1.7thou, that was after 119,000 miles.

This is one reason for light oils being used now.

My Avenger engine has a 2.5thou as a minimum when new, so needs a heavy 20w50 oil to keep metal away from metal.

Best Head Gasket Kit?

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