More of a post to help others more than anything. Unfortunately I've just had to have my head gasket replaced after a somewhat unusual set of symptoms, or rather I should say virtually no symptoms! Normally you'd associate a HG failure with potential elevated temps, smoke, creamy goo on the filler cap, and dirty coolant etc. I had absolutely none of these; the oil was pretty much spot on, and the coolant remained perfectly clean to the eye.
I first noticed a slight loss of coolant - perhaps enough to go from max to min over about a period of 1000-2000 miles. I've had a few issues with various coolant pipes beginning to perish (car's done 110k and is an '05) so wasn't entirely surprised to be loosing a little here and there. Eventually after a new expansion bottle and various other pipework it was obvious that the leak was elsewhere. The EGR cooler was removed (cleaned, christ it was full of
!) and tested, no leak. We did a block test and it was inconclusive... so we left the car for a week to see what happened and if I lost any further coolant.
500 miles later and I'm seeing a loss again, so took the car back to the garage for another block test. This time it was fairly cut and dry:
So, it was time to get the head off, and this was what we found...
It's not very clear from looking at the gasket but it had gone around two chambers, the valves looked like brand new hah! Somewhat of a concern was that it had the thickest three hole gasket already on it, but thankfully the head wasn't warped so was able to be refaced without having to be fully skimmed. Whilst the head was off it was obvious the manifold gaskets had seen better days and the manifolds themselves were filthy. After a good old clean later:
Putting things back together was a little 'interesting'. We ordered new gaskets, HG, full cambelt kit and water pump from TPS. The HG they supplied was a little different from the one taken off, notably that one of the holes was blocked up. TPS assured us that this is a revised gasket for the BPX engine and that it wouldn't be an issue. Interestingly they've sold 6 so far this year for the BPX so clearly I'm not alone here.
That's why I thought I'd post to be honest, the gasket difference might possibly catch someone out, but I'm pleased to say it's not caused me any issues and the car's driving a whole lot better now as a result.
I first noticed a slight loss of coolant - perhaps enough to go from max to min over about a period of 1000-2000 miles. I've had a few issues with various coolant pipes beginning to perish (car's done 110k and is an '05) so wasn't entirely surprised to be loosing a little here and there. Eventually after a new expansion bottle and various other pipework it was obvious that the leak was elsewhere. The EGR cooler was removed (cleaned, christ it was full of
!) and tested, no leak. We did a block test and it was inconclusive... so we left the car for a week to see what happened and if I lost any further coolant.500 miles later and I'm seeing a loss again, so took the car back to the garage for another block test. This time it was fairly cut and dry:
So, it was time to get the head off, and this was what we found...
It's not very clear from looking at the gasket but it had gone around two chambers, the valves looked like brand new hah! Somewhat of a concern was that it had the thickest three hole gasket already on it, but thankfully the head wasn't warped so was able to be refaced without having to be fully skimmed. Whilst the head was off it was obvious the manifold gaskets had seen better days and the manifolds themselves were filthy. After a good old clean later:
Putting things back together was a little 'interesting'. We ordered new gaskets, HG, full cambelt kit and water pump from TPS. The HG they supplied was a little different from the one taken off, notably that one of the holes was blocked up. TPS assured us that this is a revised gasket for the BPX engine and that it wouldn't be an issue. Interestingly they've sold 6 so far this year for the BPX so clearly I'm not alone here.
That's why I thought I'd post to be honest, the gasket difference might possibly catch someone out, but I'm pleased to say it's not caused me any issues and the car's driving a whole lot better now as a result.
