Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

1

Omega General Help / Re: Using water, is the Head gasket gone?

« on: 05 November 2009, 17:45:19 »

This happened to mine - when the HG went - It would struggle to start, then run really lumpy until the coolant cleared from the cylinder - then it would be fine.

I had symptoms 1 and 3 - but didn't see all that much white smoke from the exhaust.

This one doesn't sound like a HG problem - but just had a thought - could it be a very small, pin-hole leak in a hose, in a place that is hard to see - then the water is squirted out of the hose under pressure, onto something like an exhaust part - evaporating it quickly? Is there any evidence of steam after a long run?

2

Omega General Help / Re: Using water, is the Head gasket gone?

« on: 05 November 2009, 12:58:43 »

Hi,

I had a similar problem with my V6 - my car was using a lot of coolant, but there were no signs of any leaks anywhere. I checked all the obvious places: HBV, around the coolant bridge and from the top of the oil cooler plate. There was no oil in the water, but the coolant system did seem to be overpressurising. When the engine was cold, I made sure it was filled up to the max line, and started the engine with the pressure cap off.

I checked for a smell of combustion gases in the header tank, and thought I could detect a slight whiff. When I revved the engine, I noticed a stream of bubbles energing from the small pipe that feeds back into the top of the header tank. I suspected that it was definitely a water / combustion chamber leak in the HG at this stage - and bought one of these:

http://www.uktools.com/product_info.php/block-tester-p-12508?osCsid=b63026950a5cc6107220f26c0c8536a6

which tests for gases in the coolant. It's a blue dye which goes yellow when combustion gases are present.  It's a useful test to do, before you go down the HG route and pull your engine to pieces!

Mine went greeny / yellow meaning I had a big project coming up! When I took the head off I found a leak beween one of the combustion chambers and a water channel.


Hope this helps.