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And you can see my "[size=12]towed home[/size]" in the background.... He He He He He!Is that a puff of smoke above it?
I've not checked but I have a feeling that coolant change is not specified in the service booklet that comes with the car (pre facelift anyway). Does this mean that any vehicle which is serviced accordingly (eg at Vx ) in its early years (I suspect most of ours), will have been neglected in that respect and therefore likely have the beginnings of head (and oil coller) damage?Prefacelifts had standard coolant, so should be every 2 years (MAX!), similar to brake fluid. Whether a dealer does it is another matter...
My 2.5 was serviced at Vx up until I bought it - its '98 and I bought it in 2004 - so potentially 6 years with no coolant change (not to mention I didn't change it straight away..).
Agreed its a cheap and easy peasy job so no excuses now this is known..
Yep As I have already said in this post if you dont look after your coolent (anifreeze and change it every so often the anifreeze degrades and the coolent will in time eat away and corrode the head where it joins the block, it only needs to do it slightly as then the pressure forces a small gap between the head and the gasket.Yes, I agree, I change coolant very frequently (about every 2 yrs in MV6, even though its 5yr Red), and at least annually in the Rover (in the vain hope it helps with the K series HG)...
Mine went like this as the coolent was not changed with old owners, now for the price of a bottle of anifreeze i change the coolent every year to be on the safe side its not as if its a hard job and take as long as it does to wash the car.
Just make sure you take your plugs out for the skim, The guy who did mine never and i cant get number 4 plug out now but lucky for me they were brand new so ill worry about that later when it comes to changing them
my 2.2 is on 102k, and thats going to get regular coolant changes!but you'll have the head off before then.....
99% sure its HG
The compression test should be conclusive.
Hi Tunnie don't want to scare monger or anything but some of what your describing "loss of water when standing but no loss when running, misfire when started but goes once cleared " sounds like a cracked head which is sealing up as metal temp rises with running unlike a HG which normally can't hold pressure as temp rises. Once you get the head off get it crack tested before spending money on skimming. Usually the firm that does one will be able to do both. That may be why the sniffer didn't work once engine was warm, crack was sealed so no fumes.Never heard of cracked heads on modern Vauxhalls - porous ones on late 80s engines maybe. Much better heads than BMW junk
Others on here have a lot more experience of 2.2 probably know better. but might be worth checking
To tell the truth I'm puzzled by the petrol fumes .... unburned petrol can only enter the cylinder during vacuum, and so should not leak into water, water should leak into cylinder, if the HG leak is sufficiently large. If the leak is still "small" then the major movement will be under maximum compression .. ie after ignition when the pressure in the cylinder is highest, but the fumes would no longer be of "petrol" but of "exhaust" ... burned fuel. If the leak is of such a size that it is occuring during the compression stroke itself I would expect a major loss of performance as that/those cylinders have nothing to work on. If unburned fuel is getting into the system for some other reason I'm inclined to look elsewhere, but I don't know Omega's well enough.When I smelt it, it wasn't petrol fumes, but that 'rich running' exhaust fumes (car was on choke)
Don't know if this will work .... going back in time to the days of the Cortina .. used to check for head gasket problems by running engine with rad cap off and looking for bubbles ...might work on yoursI think petrol fumes is conclusive enough :-/ ?should be easier to see with a clear(ish) header tank ... cortina's had no such finesse !!
The theory was, with no cap on the gas pressure in the cylinder will always be greater than the water pressure in the system, so leak would increase and be easier to spot ...
Presumably, 90 degrees past tdc is 'safe' from piston/valve view, how does tunnie know where TDC is on a 2.2?Quotethe best solution would be for me to remove the head first, but i am still not confident in doing this on my dads car. I would do it on mine, but not his.... i don't want to shear something!
AFAIK there was heat in the cabin, and the temp stayed at a constant 85.....
Ah....risky shift.
Its ok for somebody else to bugger it but not you!
You realy need to take that head off and get it skimmed before James comes for the re-fit.
Removal is not difficult and that way you know when its going to be fixed plus if a stud snaps then it can be sorted by the machine shop at the same time.
the best solution would be for me to remove the head first, but i am still not confident in doing this on my dads car. I would do it on mine, but not his.... i don't want to shear something!He said it was cold in car (or did I dream that bit?).
AFAIK there was heat in the cabin, and the temp stayed at a constant 85.....
My concern with the head - and it assumes the coolant loss and HG are related - is that the coolant loss was noticed, topped up, then driven to brum and back. Would the coolant start to channel a groove? Also, apparently there was no heat in cabin, so therefore the temp gauges would work (again, apparently not reading, or reading low), so we don't know how hot it got.QuoteSeeing as it looks like you are not going to machine the head, does the manifold (and associated risk with studs) need to come off?
If I'm helping with this, I'm not going to take anything for granted. The head will be inspected within an inch of it's life with a straight edge / feeler blade, I would want to be very confident it's OK before refitting. Driving back from brum with a failed HG alone should be ok, providing it's not overheated enough to distort anything.
Personal recommendation would be to replace the manifold gasket and flatten the manifold surfaces, because the 4 pots are known for going. However - it is Tunnie's choice - and also Tunnie's risk (!) - that if any studs do break, then it will be a trip to the machine shop for rethreading!
I'm also not re-fitting a used cambelt kit and / or water pump... that would be daft following that work.
