Blown head gaskets
 

Hi there, the head gasket has gone on my 2.5 KV6, the garage I normally take my ZT to don't want to do it and I have been told you need special tools for the belts. Well if your doing the gaskets you might as well do the belts. Is this true? By the way I'm in Cornwall about as far south west as you can go. Any help would be grateful. Thanks.

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Sure it's the head gasket? Unusual for a head gasket to go in a V6.

The head gaskets on the KV6 are normally very stable and failure is very rare, although not impossible, yet we still hear of garages misdiagnosing HGF.

There are many things you can check before shelling out a fortune for a repair you may not need.

You'll get loads of advice on here to help you diagnose whether its the head gasket or not.

So lets start at the beginning...what were the symptoms that prompted you to take it in for repair in the first place?

Paul

Simple answer, yes every time and don't forget about tensioners and any other bits and bobs that may well not be immediately due for replacement, but whilst everything is in bits will be far easier to replace............a stitch in time and all that.

As others have said very rare for V6 head gasket failure let us know your symptoms and we will help you

Thanks for the reply guys, well the first issue I had was the thermostat so I had that replaced. Then steam started coming out when queuing at KFC including the interior which using the air con only got worse. I had the air con re-gassed but no problems were found except the air con would not run cold. Then whilst in a queuing again but at MC. Donald's she overheated but this time the temp guage went up so I pulled over immediately, waited until she had cooled, top her up with water and got her home. The garage told me they did a test and that this time it was the head gasket but nobody wanted to do the work.....but, I wondered could it be a cooling fan failure? as I cannot recall it switching on but having said that there does appear to be oil in the coolant.

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Almost certainly a cooling fan failure, as overheating and no AC. Start the car, press demist - go to the front of the car and check if the cooling fan is working, report back.

Regards

You say the garage did a test, do you know what test they did? If they have done a compression test they they should be able to provide you with a print out of the results so you can see for yourself if there are any differences between each cylinder.

Also they should have carried out a sniff test to determine if there are any exhaust gases in the cooling system.

As you say it could be the fan so you need to carry out a demist test as follows ..

1. Turn the aircon on and choose ECON.
2. Now press demist and you should hear the slow speed fan kick in, you may need to get out and look through the grill to make sure.

If the low speed isn't working then you need to sort that out but how you do it depends on whether you've got three speed fan or two speed fan but do the test first, then you can move on.

Paul

A very simple test for HGF (which has been already said is uncommon on the V6) is take her out for a 10 mile thrash at motor way speeds - park her up and next morning undo the expansion tank cap - if you get an audible escape of gas then it points to HGF as there should be no pressure in a cold system - that points to exhaust gases in the coolant pipes.

Also are you seeing mayonnaise under your oil filler cap or on your dipstick - if you have HGF you would often see emulsified oil deposits at these places - aka "brown mayo".:shrug:

Hi there, well the garage said something about a colour test but to be honest I was a bit fed up. I have had the car running for half an hour, apart from a little steam from the header tank she is running fine and did not go above normal temp. But at no point did the fan kick in. I tried the test a couple of times but I could hear or see nothing but I remember that this would happen and after a while the air con fan would work because on auto it made a horrible whining noise.

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