MOT Day, it passed..... but

The tyres are done in, with only about 5000 miles wear on em ( Bridgestone Potenza's) and I asked the bloke if he could see any water leaking from anywhere obvious, he couldn't but said that the water pump's tend to go if not changed with the belt, when I got the car there was no history with it but there is a gates sticker under the bonnet with 88,000 miles written on it now at 127,000 BUT the car has lost about 4-5 litres of coolant now over two months so turning into a big problem
He just said do the belt and pump asap, I'll have a look on here and on Elsa win for instructions
Looks to me like it's cheaper to buy a gates belt and water pump separately... Any recommendations for the above ?

Sorry bud it's a pd 130 .... Just had a look under the car after leaving it for an hour or so and there is no evidence of coolant on the floor, all the hose unions and heater matrix look dry as well... Surely if the he's gasket had gone it would have failed miserably on the emissions test ?

R3k1355 said:

Nah emissions test on a diesel is a piece of piss, barely any point in doing it.

Head gasket can be totally mullered and you'll still sail through.

Click to expand...

The symptoms so far are loss of coolant with no really obvious witness to where it's going
I checked the coolant level yesterday with the car stone cold and there was quite a bit of pressure still in the system
The header tank bottom hose / clamp looks quite corroded / witness of some previous leaking from there but not wet, some water on inner wing underneath the header tank

The First I realised that it had lost coolant was when the heaters started blowing cold.
There doesn't appear to be oil in water or water in oil.
The temp gauge never rises above 90 and no hydraulic locking when starting the car.
There does appear to be some oil on the front of the block which I will scrub off with carb cleaner to see if it re appears
Worst case scenario what am I looking at replacing parts wise ?
I guess head skim / gasket
Water pump / timing belt
Timing lock up tools
Head bolts ?
Upshot is I'm not afraid of doing the work myself IF I can prove 100% it is the head gasket,
I have read a little on different thickness gaskets to compensate for the head skim, is it worth buying a Haynes for this car ? I do have Elsa win, I ask this question because my focus st wasn't covered by the haynes, next step clean block get it sniff tested ?

That's a good suggestion actually bud just had a look and an engine can be had with alternator injectors minus a turbo for around £200 quid .... Why didn't I think of that ? In that case I think I'm going to get it sniff tested and try a bottle of that k seal stuff to get the car through the winter and some new coolant as there mustn't be any left in it now... Who knows if it stops losing coolant I'll just run it till the engine dies....

R3k1355 said:

I'd advise against the K-seal if I were you, it gets into all of the cooling system so your rad, pipework and heater matrix will be full of it.

You might still end up changing the engine, but you won't get rid of all the K-seal and it could cause issues later down the line.

Click to expand...

Tbh mate I'm prepared to give it a go, as you said earlier on in this thread is it justified spending a whole heap of money on an old car after all it is an 11 year old motor and probably only worth 1400 quid

I didn't go into it lightly thinking of using k seal, but after reading lots of reviews and potential issues it might or might not cause it's a risk I'm prepared to take
The k seal doesn't actually harden in the water system unless exposed to the atmosphere, also I have read quite a few reports from people with pd engines with mystery water leaks where it has solved the problem completely

update

Just given the car a proper spanking and it's hoying water out of the top of the expansion bottle leaving a visible trail down my street, I fear no head gasket sealer will fix, has anyone on here ever tryed re torqing the head bolts ? Are they stretch bolts ?

R3k1355 said:

Most headbolts are, but the gasket will be damaged and no amount of re-torquing will fix that.

Click to expand...

Yes I agree with you don't know what I was thinking with the k seal ..... just didn't want to be elbow deep in oil / grease for yet another autumn / winter, last January it was the clutch in my ST that decided to eat itself which i did on a driveway on my own, the previous February it was the timing belt / cam seals .....
I still haven't had the car sniff tested since it dumped most of the coolant out, I just parked it up in a huff because there is no way i'm going to get all that done at a garage, i just can't afford it atm i'm going to try and get someone to do it tomorrow to 100% confirm
last time i drove it I had only done about two miles and the temp was right up at 90 degrees and it dumped the coolant out the spanny bottle ...... like you suggested i'm fairly certain it is the head gasket BUT possibly the water pump as well.
So after diagnosis i will pull it apart ( I was going to look at replacement engine but this one has never truly cooked itself yet, Temp has never risen past 90 Degrees and i might just be buying another problem engine)also kept it topped up with water

After reading the elsa win it stipulates that you can't skim the head unless you can re shim the clearance with a different thickness gasket because of the piston protrusion.

Has anyone got any experience of re building one of these just with a new head gasket / Bolts ?
I have read of a lot of people blaming the head bolts stretching causing the gasket to start to blow and when coming to strip the head the bolts ain't tight

Anyone else been in this situation ? and what was the end result