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[wayneywoo]

Hey all,

Just a quickie.  Anyone any experience of changing the head gasket on the X20XEV 2.0 litre?

I think mine is needing to be done.  Symptoms:

Coolant loss and a terrible misfire when trying to start after having been driven.  Once the engine does catch enough to turn over, the misfire will eventually go after maybe 20-30 seconds.  Once warm, idles perfectly fine and if switched off and restarted, again no problems.

I did think the coolant was leaking into one of the cylinders after switching off, causing the temporary misfire, but this wouldn't explain the patch under the car?

Other than that, the car drives perfectly fine?

I did also think of trying K-Seal.  Anyone any experience on this?  I've heard mixed reactions.

Thanks for reading!

Ahhhh.....just thought, when starting initially, I do get some blue smoke.  Now blue smoke on starting is the valve stem oil seals?  Also, blue smoke when revs up past 4-5k.  Maybe oil is leaking down in to a cylinder or two causing the temporary misfire?  And the coolant leak is from somewhere else?

[PhilRich]

DO NOT use K-Seal! or any other form of 'quick fix' leak sealant (I speak from experience!).
As to the possible HG leak?, trace the coolant leak causing the damp patch under the car first. Is there any trace of water/oil emulsion on the sump dipstick?, any trace of oil in the coolant expansion bottle or air bubbling? Do the radiator hoses go rock hard as the engine warms up? :-/

[cem_devecioglu]

[size=12]DO NOT use K-Seal![/size] or any other form of 'quick fix' leak sealant (I speak from experience!).
As to the possible HG leak?, trace the coolant leak causing the damp patch under the car first. Is there any trace of water/oil emulsion on the sump dipstick?, any trace of oil in the coolant expansion bottle or air bubbling? Do the radiator hoses go rock hard as the engine warms up? :-/

seconded.. you will create more problems ..

miggy has many parts that can leak coolant like HBV (heater by pass valve), oil cooler area (under the inlet manifold) , thermostat, radiator hoses,heater matrix or combination like in my case etc etc.. 

edit: yours was 2.0 now I see, so no oil cooler :-/

[westy]

sorry to say but sounds like head gasket to me, mine had the same symptoms as yours but i had no external leaks or mixing of oil and water mine just used water and missed when started from cold or if left for more than an hour after a good run. The leak or water you can see has probably been caused by extra pressure in the cooling system.  you can slacken off the expansion bottle cap to release the pressure  just after you park it up for the evening, chances are it wont misfire when you start it next, also check the plugs see if they are all the same colour one clean plug probably means water getting into that cylinder.  as for k seal definitely not or any other leak stopper they cause more problems down the line headgaskets are straight forward enough of a job on these let us know how you get on all the best  westy :-/

[wayneywoo]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

Can anyone tell me what the block is at the rear of the engine where the plug leads come from?  There is a small ally block that is bolted to the engine just by the bulkhead.  It looks like there is a leak there.  Maybe just a new gasket needed but damn it looks quite hard to get to the bolts?! 

Oh, and there isn't any visible signs of mixing oil > water or water > oil...

[Shallow Al]

Does this leak smell like anti-freeze? Or is it just plain water?

[westy]

that ally housing has 2 temp sensors screwed into it and a paper gasket between that and the head i think ther are 3 bolts securing it to the back of the head but very fiddly to get at you might see more with the scuttle panel removed also have a good look at the heater valve just to the left it seems these are prone to leaking, ps theres a how to remove the scuttle in the maintananc section .    good luck

[tunnie]

Another vote here for not using K-Seal, horrid stuff.

Sorry to say sounds HG to me, miss-fire clearing after few mins is nail in the coffin along with coolant loss. On the 4 pots, they generally fail around back of pot 4, allowing coolant into the cylinder. Its then burnt off as engine runs, hence miss-fire.

[PhilRich]

This is the 2.2 lump at the rear of the head, it is similar to the 2ltr & the bolt positions are the same afaik

[wayneywoo]

Regarding the HG......I could understand this if there was no visible signs of coolant loss externally...i.e. no patch under the car.  I did have a slight crack in my old radiator and so coolant would leak out of here when the engine was switched off and so the coolant pressure would rise and force out of the crack.  Now I have changed the rad, obviously the next weakest spot will get weaker and so I have a feeling that the gasket that was leaking slightly before is now allowing more coolant to leak as the pressure is greater at this spot now the leaking rad is no more.

The patch under the car has become a puddle since changing the rad.

I have a sneaking suspicion the HG is on it's way out but I'd like to find the coolant leak first or, as philrich has posted the pics (very helpful thanks  ), maybe I should do both at the same time?

Should I use a particular make of HG or is any patent part fine?

Thanks for the replies all!

[wayneywoo]

Hey PhilNotSoRich ( ),

Could you possibly post a pic of the face that goes against the head please? and is there a normal (card/cork) gasket that goes between the two faces?

Thanks!

[Abiton]

Not sure whether Phil has a piccy from that angle, so here's one I made earlier, with some arrows on it showing the path of exhaust gas in and out of it.



I wouldn't describe the gasket as 'normal card/cork' though I'm not sure quite how I would describe it.  As far as I remember it was a shiny grey thing, but not solid/multilayer metal, that came in my Vx head kit.
I wouldn't have thought card/cork would cope well with sealing both the waterway and the exhaust gas paths.

Hope this helps. 

[wayneywoo]

Hi guys, thanks for the image Abiton.

Can I ask you and PhilnotsoRich, do you think it's possible to remove this casing from the head with the engine in situ?  Probably reaching around the back of the engine and working blind but it looks rather tight there...

Thanks!
 

[Abiton]

Sorry fella, I don't know the answer to that one.
I removed that one after the head came off, easy-style.

There's probably enough room between the back surface and the firewall to get tools onto the bolt heads, but I'm not sure whether you'll get them unscrewed far enough to free that chunk? 
A normal ring spanner/ratchet-ring spanner will do torx heads, especailly if you can loosen them off with the right tool first.

Would be good info for the forum to have if you're feeling brave enough to have a go. 

Edit: Looking at Philrich's picture, it does look possible in terms of thread-length etc.

Presumably you've got coolant leaking out past that gasket?

Access = awful, for sure.

[wayneywoo]

Thanks Abiton.

Well, it looks like I have to take the head off, X20XEV, change head gasket.  Is there a guide on here do you know asI haven't bought a Haynes maual yet....or...you have any useful pointers for us?

Maybe I should post a seperate thread...

Thanks guy!