aghhh just overheated

[randombit]

well jus been dwn to my "local friendly" garage who cant even attempt to look at it till wed!!!!!! even after explained situ with going away etc.

nxt step try local friendly mechanic, he knows a bit about bongos and should be able to pressure test.

[randombit]

after hours of phoning round etc, it is the head gasket which has gone. having trouble finding anyone to do it tho in short notice, which is understandable.
Can you guys educate me a bit on what is involved and approx costs etc.

cheers

[Doone]

Sorry to hear you're having problems.
Do you know what caused it to overheat? It's important to find that out, otherwise it will happen again. You've said you phoned around and were told the 'head gasket' is gone, not the head. Has anyone looked at it to diagnose it?

A search for 'head, price, cost' found several results including these two, mentioning head gasket and head. If you ring around, ask what parts garages use as quotes can vary depending on the quality of the parts. And ask what's included in the quote, head gasket, thermostat etc.
CLICK HERE
AND HERE

[randombit]

yeah explained situ to local garage an he said sounds like head gasket. took to another local garage (only one who would look at it straight away), experienced with delicia and campervans in general he had a look and saw the water pumping out and heard the air coming out and said its def the head gasket, wont know until pressure tested which no one can do until nxt wk.
dont know as i gona be able to afford to fix it anyway.
meant to be going away this wkend family break, kids gutted and i am pulling my hair out trying to beg borrow or hire another vehicle.

[Doone]

Are you up to fixing it yourself? If you got stuck in now, it'd be ready for the weekend. Or if your local garage has courtesy cars, then you're sorted for transport.

[randombit]

Are you up to fixing it yourself? If you got stuck in now, it'd be ready for the weekend. Or if your local garage has courtesy cars, then you're sorted for transport.

wish we had the knowledge to do it our selves but we don't. also dont have the cash to take it to a garage, even if anylocal garage could fit it in

[missfixit70]

Are you up to fixing it yourself? If you got stuck in now, it'd be ready for the weekend. Or if your local garage has courtesy cars, then you're sorted for transport.

wish we had the knowledge to do it our selves but we don't. also dont have the cash to take it to a garage, even if anylocal garage could fit it in

It may be worth trying "steel seal" or similar products, it's worked for some, unfortunately it didn't work on mine, but that could have been that my leak was still fairly minor at that point & didn't create the temperatures necessary for the chemical reaction to take place.
Bear in mind if you use steel seal, it turns the coolant very "syrupy" even after it supposedly dissipates harmlessly in the system, & it takes a LOT of flushing out, chemical flush needed. if it's left in to run with this in the system, people have reported water pump failure after using it, which makes sense as the pump will have to work harder against the thicker fluid & I think it would create cavitation at higher speeds which will soon destroy the pump impellers.
Saying all that, if it's a choice between a driveway ornament or getting another few months or years use out of it for thre sake of £30, may be worth a punt.
There are other products that do a similar job, I tried Steel seal after a few people on the forum tried it with success (have a search), google it as well, lots of discussions on it on the Interweb.

[roundspoon]

put a similar product to steel seal in my lads corsa about 4 months ago,head gasket gone, still working a treat
and it was only £8 from local motor factor
well worth a go
will find out tomorrow whats its called

[randombit]

got some kseal after another chat with the garage, will try and sort it 2mrw, too tired and stressed to start it now.

friend has lent us a car for the weekend so we can still away (sort of)

woo hoo
I have some wonderfull friends

[missfixit70]

Let us know how you get on with it, fingers crossed it works, even if it just gives you time to save up for a proper job Try & enjoy your weekend anyway, at the end of the day it's just a car no matter what happens.

[mikexgough]

seems okay by the You Tube demo....... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqfp3PFJQJk

[randombit]

Let us know how you get on with it, fingers crossed it works, even if it just gives you time to save up for a proper job Try & enjoy your weekend anyway, at the end of the day it's just a car no matter what happens.

your right Kirsty, thank you.
have put kseal in, getting her up to running temp now. good news is when I switched her off for a min (saw steam thought it was smoke) no water spurted out of the header tank------that is progress

feeling a bit better now

[missfixit70]

Make sure you follow the instructions but also bear in mind what you know about the coolant system, & adapt the instructions to suit, ie make sure the stat is open & allow the stuff enough time to get around the whole system to do what it's supposed to.

[mister munkey]

Mine's in the final stages of a reasonably major rebuild - mostly caused by a cracked head despite the fact it had passed a sniffer test.

Saw the offending crack last friday. On pot No. 2 there is an almost microscopic mark, no more than two or three mm long quite close to the exhaust valve.

Thats all it takes to cause mayhem.

Chances are if yours is on a similar scale, one of these products will do the job, should've tried it myself first really . . . .

Very interested to see the outcome all the same.

Best of luck.

[randombit]

Yep we bled it till most of the bubbles had stopped, figured if there was a crack then the bubbles would never stop and we poured kseal in the bleed pipe as it would get round quicker (they say themselves to avoid header tank) checked bottom pipe was hot and also checked it had gotten through the rad and into the header tank (you can see the speckles of copper, it looked quite pretty!)

just taken her for very short test drive as idling was taking too long to get up to temp, came up to running temp and then fans kicked in and temp came down as normal, b4 switched engine off popped bonnet to watch in case of water and.................................................................none!! now we are not counting our chickens yet, gona check levels in teh morning and if ok go for a longer drive.

will update 2mrw.