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[effinomega]

Update.

LC0112G - I forgot I had one of those lying about after buying it to see down some cavity walls.  Did the trick tonight.

It's defo the HG.  Ran like a donkey with no back legs earlier, got the 0303 code for cyl 3 again.  Got it home, let it sit for a few hours and then took the plugs out.  Put the camera down and it instantly got submerged in cyl3.  Took the cam out as couldn't see anything but fish and tasted it - bloody coolant.  At least I know my upcoming weekend efforts won't be a waste of time & money for sure.

Found a local engineering co that will skim the head for £40.   In fact, head skims are one of their main services and they supply a gasket 

As said earlier, I'll take notes and pics of progress at the weekend, just in case it helps anyone in the future.

Cheers for now all and thanks again for all the suggestions.

Happy days.

[LC0112G]

If there is that much water in the bore I'm surprised you haven't already hydraulic-ed it 

[effinomega]

I know.  Scary stuff.

Hopefully be sorted soon.

Cheers

[bluebuss]

its always a good thing to get it skimmed, i have a place over i use he skims the head and pressure tests it before hand to check for fractures. in fact my header tank is getting a little dirty...
175,000mls on a 2.0i 16v...is it going to go my way?

[effinomega]

so the valves stay in during the skimming so the pressure test can be done?

cheers

[LC0112G]

so the valves stay in during the skimming so the pressure test can be done?

cheers

At it's simplest, the pressure test is normally just the water ways. They bung up all but one water hole, and then apply a compressed air line to the remaining hole. They then dunk the whole lot in a water bath, and watch for air bubbles. This will detect cracks in the valve seats to water ways.

You can also do the same thing for the oil ways, but you usually need to ask for it - most places won't do it by default.

The problem is that it's not 100% reliable, because some cracks can open up once the head gets hot, and close again when it cools. Pressure testing is usually done at room temp, so it won't reveal cracks that open up when hot. To find these cracks you have to get the head ultrasonically scanned, which ain't cheap.

[effinomega]

That's it all back together and is running well so far.   Real test will be the thirty miles to work and back tomorrow. 

Big thanks to all those that replied and to those that put up the helpful guides, it would've been impossible without them.

I took a couple of pics but decided they weren't going to help any more than the great posts on here already.

Cheers