Head Gasket Gone

[planenut]

Originally Posted by Rev Jules

Hi Fred. no it is not mine there is a Sea Frost with just 36k on the clock one owner from new, was thinking of taking a punt at it.

Rev.

Ah, okay, have you seen it, or got someone to check it?

[TourerSteve]

Originally Posted by Rev Jules

Does a head gasket failure on a 1.8 mean it is terminal for the engine.

Rev

Are you sure the gasket that has failed ?
Head gaskets on the 1.8 tend to fail in three ways

1 you get an elastomer breakdown and you get a cross contamination of engine fluids (eg coolant in the oil or vice versa )
2 , You have fire ring failure and you put combustion gasses into your coolant which in turn pressurises coolant and expels it out your expansion tank
3 you have a coolant leak which in turn causes damage to your head gasket usually resulting in symptoms in point 2


1, is usually an easy fix as often this is just age related and a breakdown of the elastomer from the head gasket ( T cut has photo examples of this ). a
Usually a straight forward head gasket change providing no great loss of coolant and engine has not overheated no other damage will have been done.

2 and 3 can cause you more problem as if the engine has been boiled up and overheated other complications like dropped liners, warped head etc can cause other issues and more work to repair

As you can see by others comments some engines have more problems than others but by nature the turbo's seem to be more prone to head gaskets problems .With the age of the cars now ,engines with original gaskets are failing with elastomer breakdown, A lot of the fire ring issues are caused by liner heights
Obviously any water leak or fan failure is detrimental to over heating the engine
Hi

[ceedy]

Crikey no....did our HG belt pump etc and the Turbo in the road outside






C

[T-Cut]

Originally Posted by TourerSteve

1. you get an elastomer breakdown and you get a cross contamination of engine fluids (eg coolant in the oil or vice versa) - - - (T-cut has photo examples of this).

Here it is



EDIT: It looks to me like a rubber-metal adhesion issue rather than the elastomer being effected chemically. I've had one of these little central bits submerged in 50% OAT since the beginning of August 2020 and it seems unaffected so far. Of course any chemical change at room temperature will take rather longer than it would under engine running conditions. But bear in mind, the sample had already been in the engine for fifteen years before this happened. The sections of elastomer still well bonded appear to be as good as new. Basically, these original elastomer gaskets were not all put together very well. Some areas bonded well, others simply peeled off the metal surface. Pot luck I'd say.

TC