Head Gasket Issue

Afternoon all,

Well the old girl is sick, she has been playing up a bit for a while but today was the decider. Got home and she was running a bit off so I thought I would tune the carb and when I turned her over about a minute after stopping her she was very reluctant to start then when she did,,,, let's say I have seen smokes screens that would be proud. Billowing white smoke from the tail pipe. Cleared after about a minute then I popped the bonnet and noticed steam from the radiator cap and also the breather on the rocker cover also with a brown milk like fluid around the edge of the breather.

So question is, as a semi incompetent mechanic how stupid would it be for me to attempt this, I am assuming it is the head,,, and if I start this route what tools do I need and general things to look for and avoid,,,,,

Series 2a, 2.25 petrol....

Thanks in advance,

Paul.

You should be able to take the head off yourself with a comprehensive tool kit. You will need a torque wrench. You're likely to find more than just the gasket is buggered if the heads hasn't been off for long time.

sounds like a blown head gasket big time, but im not liking the description you gave, as my sisters holden astra blew the head for us to find out after i removed it that the water passages in the head were eroded back allowing water to enter the combustion spaces, so i see you say its a petrol, it looks like you may need another head maybe a secondhand one from a wreckers, get it crack tested and use a composite head gasket, and use hardened washers under the head bolts 18 if i remember correctly, but you have to wait till you take the head off before you get in a panic. cause it might just be a leak from the water passage to the combustion chamber from the broken original copper gasket, cause back a few year ago i blew 2 copper head gaskets and gave up the copper for the composite head gasket and that is the better way to go.

before undoing head bolts undo block drain on lhs of block

It's a fairly simple job - just putting mine back on after some non-essential messing around. Things to remember are:
- clean out all the thread holes with an air line before refitting head bolts
- get a GOOD torque wrench, not an old one that;s been dropped or a chinese one that is miles out
- download the landrover pdfs, good simple instructions, once you've found them.
- don't forget the oil feed at the back driver's side of the engine
- buy a decent composite gasket, they seem to take more abuse than the cheapo ones or copper ones.

Send us some pics when you've got the head off - it will likely need/benefit from a bit of fettling

dominicbeesley said:

It's a fairly simple job - just putting mine back on after some non-essential messing around. Things to remember are:
- clean out all the thread holes with an air line before refitting head bolts
- get a GOOD torque wrench, not an old one that;s been dropped or a chinese one that is miles out
- download the landrover pdfs, good simple instructions, once you've found them.
- don't forget the oil feed at the back driver's side of the engine
- buy a decent composite gasket, they seem to take more abuse than the cheapo ones or copper ones.

Send us some pics when you've got the head off - it will likely need/benefit from a bit of fettling

Click to expand...

Planning on getting it off on Monday so will send photos then, fingers crossed it is not cracked!

So head off, quite simple if not fiddly to do and sodding heavy, office boy like me normally lifts paper not lumps of metal.
Going to clean it up and fit the new gasket but from the look of the valves I am thinking they need some work too?
Also the coolant drain plug on the engine was totally blocked with crap. Any suggestions on how to flush this? I am assuming it is to be done when the head is all back together.

if you pop the 3 core plugs out a pressure washer would flush it nicely but you would need some rags to block bores and cam gallery

James is right of course but the drain plug might just need the ****e poking out of it, mine was full of oily muck but the innards didn't need a clean beyond the usual flush. What did the water look like that came out? Are you after doing a real engine fettle or just get it running again.

Glad you got it apart. Pictures would help. A good test is to lie the head on its back and fill each of the combustion chambers with diesel or paraffin. If it dribbles past the valves then they need sorting. It's a slow job but lapping them back in isn't difficult. You just need a spring compressor and a valve grinding stick (a wooden stick with a sucker on't end) and some paste.

All the crud and soot should be scraped off. Last time I got bored and used a brass brush in a drill (gently)on the valves and head. This is probably a bad idea though? A careful scrape with a stanley blade on the piston crowns trying not to score them and then a good polish up. I've been advised in the past that scratching them is the end of the world but I'm not sure that can be right as they've got a load of numbers and letters stamped into them!

I do each piston at the top with some grease filling the gap between cylinder and piston to catch the crud then clean that out by scraping round with the lid of a fag paper packet...keepin repeating with more grease to get all the crap out.

Make sure you get all the old gasket off and do make sure you use a torque wrench to put it back!