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[Phil.d]

Having recently suffered from overheating , I got the car into the Garage for a cylinder check and turns out the rhs head has lost compression. Apparenty they should be 12psi and the readings I got are 200 , 180 , 200 for the left side ( not psi ) and 160 , 165 , 170 for the rhs which I'm told is below 12psi.  This is why the cooling system was pressurising and coming out of the header tank cap. So its head gasket time for me I'm afraid.I thought this info might be usefull as I think someome else had the the same symptoms as my car. Very weird as the car had no power loss and drove well up to the point of overheating.

[Kevin Wood]

Firstly, it should probably be 12 BAR and the figures you got are likely PSI.

I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that the head gasket has gone looking at those figures. If anything, I'd say the cam timing is out on one bank perhaps.

A failure of the head gasket would be very unlikely to lower the 3 cylinders on a bank by exactly the same amount but, in any case, a compression test is not conclusive.

Have you got contamination of the coolant with oil and mayonnaise on the dip stick? If so, could be oil cooler. Failing that, I'd make sure the cooling system is in good order and check the cam timing before taking the heads off.

Kevin

[Phil.d]

I'd had a new oil cooler , thermostat and rad switch fitted fitted last week and from that point on several flushes as well but still the cooling system was pressurising. You could feel the difference on the top hose compared with the rest of the hoses , it was virtually solid. I hope the garage are confident on their diagnosis , I'll know later this week.