mysterious water loss

[Brett]

An alternative solution should you wish to keep the rear heater is to run some rubber hose from the engine bay back to the rear heater - along chassis rail and bypass the metal pipes.

Which is exactly what I've done.

Just make sure you flush the heater properly before connecting it back up, if it's been bypassed for some time (as mine had) it was full of crap when I flushed it out.

 

[callum]

well my mysterious water loss has persisted.

i did the big end bearings at the weekend, so the car got an oil and filter change. checked my filler cap today and there is a bit of white mayo on it, so i'm fearing the head gasket is leaking.

its off to the garage on friday for a pressure check and for them to do their diagnosis bit.

First thing to discount, there's not an engine oil cooler in the radiator is there?

Assuming the diagnose the worst and i need to change the headgasket, what's involved? i can do the job in about 5 hours on the isuzu engine in my land rover, but there looks to be a reasonable amount of stuff to take off.

I see milner do a gasket for £35, but from my experience with the isuzu engine i'll need at least a new exhaust manifold gasket to go with that so presumably would need to buy the whole engine kit at £80.

on the isuzu lump both times i've changed it have not been due to the gasket leaking. I assume i should be checking for some underlying problem which has caused the leak. I can't see much information on the internet about changing the head gasket on this engine (unlike the 4.5 petrol), so it appears to be not such a common problem.

i'll know for sure (hopefully) on friday, but i nthe mean time, i'd appreciate any input.

thanks

callum

 

[Bat21]

Callum, before you start fearing the worst, read my post on page 2 here... my bet is you have a problem with the rad.

 

[callum]

thanks paul,

that's one reasons why its off to the garage as they'll be able to check the pressure in the rad too (and hopefully find any leaks). i've checked pretty thoroughly for wet patches, but i can't find anything. i would think a garage deals with this sort of thing pretty regularly so will be able to check the things i wasn't able to. hopefully its the radiator rather than the head gasket, don't want to spend another weekend under the bonnet and covered in oil.

callum

 

[Andrew Prince]

First thing to discount, there's not an engine oil cooler in the radiator is there?

Callum, if you have an auto, there is an ATF cooler in the rad. Can't remember whether you have an auto or manual (maybe identify your cruiser in your signature )

I think Paul's advice is good - get the rad properly checked out and once you're certain that it is all good, then move on to the next possibility.

Cheers,

 

[callum]

well it went to the garage and they pressurised the system and looked for leaks, then they warmed the car up and pressurised it again and still no leaks. then they left it pressurised overnight to see if there was any pressure drop overnight. needless to say it still had pressure by the morning. so it still remains a mystery. they were totally stumped and their only suggestion was a bottle of radweld and see how things go.

much as i dislike that sort of thing, i've put some in. i'll report back in a while on the effects of that.

thanks for your help and suggestions everyone. i'm just glad it was not a head gasket issue.

callum

 

[callum]

well it didn't take too long for the problem to revel itself. as i was peering in the engine bay with the engine running and adding the last of the radweld, what do i see, but tiny bubbles emitting from the headgasket at cylinders 4 and 6. i think that confirms where the water is going.

now to spend a reasonable bit of money and/or time changing the head gasket. grumble grumble

 

[Rob]

well that's the first time i have read/heard about a 1hd-t head gasket go

 

[jjcymru]

why dont your torque up the headbolts first before commiting to a stripdown.

 

[Dave Burgess]

More sort of Rad-reveal than Radweld

Hope it goes well and there is not time pressure, though a good tweak of the head bolts might defer the work, as suggested above

 

[callum]

actually i had considered a tweak of the head bolts by maybe 45 degrees in the tightening order. did a bit of reading on the internet to try and find out if this was a good or bad idea, but opinions seemed mixed. anyone tried this on another car?

 

[Bat21]

If you are not going to travel off to a far flung continent try K Seal.... does what it says on the label

My daughter had a problem with her Pug 106 about 8 months ago, in went the K Seal and problem hasn't shown its self since.

 

[Dave Docwra]

If you are going to try tightening the head bolts, I would suggest undoing them in the correct sequence one by one & retorque to correct level.

 

[tomrichardson]

if you want to tighten head bolts in situ, take them out one at a time, clean and oil the thread (lightly) and put back in and torque up. an old engineer taught me that when i did my daihatsu. better than trying to torque up when dry.

 

[stefoil]

hi callum,like has been mentionned check your rear heater feed pipes under where you sit,& also waterlevel will always level out to just below the filler neck in the rad,if your head gasket was going [gone ]it would spit water constantly from the header overflow pipe or blow steam through your air box,also check the pipes feeding the cold start on the injector pump as they somtimes get gacked up ,feel free to call for a chat as emailing takes time,kind regards stef 07791480343