Well, as you may have recently observed in my Readers Rides thread, my little Dolomite was feeling a little pressurised.
In one of life's little ironies, I replied to a thread on the TDC about slant four head gasket failure and how infrequently they actually occured - and consequently, having said "bet I've cursed myself now", have suffered just that
Recently I'd been experiencing a strange cooling issue, for which I pointed at the thermostat. Basically, it overcooled - running at a 1/4 on the gauge and no more, although sometimes it'd get up to half.
Driving through town a couple of times, it shot up to over half and continued onwards, so I pulled over. On resuming, it seemed fine. Then, unfortunately, I suffered the terminal feeling of cold air out of the heater - although sometimes heat would come back into it, more often than not it was cold.
In a last-ditch attempt, I switched the coolant out, change the thermostat, bled it all and seemed fine. No overheating but I was now driving what appeared to be a 130BHP kettle, given the steam exiting from behind it.
Header tank's heavily pressurised too now, so, despite running cool and running strong, the head gasket has gone between a combustion chamber and a waterway. The oil's still lovely and clean as is the rocker cover so it'd seem that's the problem.
Fresh coolant is a bit murky, probably due to exhaust and combustion gases getting into it:
Anyway, my weapon of choice was K-seal, Permanant Coolant Leak Repair. Purchased for the almighty sum of 6 quid off eBay, I thought it worth a shot - considering the engine will be going soon (fingers crossed), it makes no difference if it worked or not.
If it did work, however, then it'd give me the chance to continue hooning around in it in the meantime.
I don't think you really want to swallow this:
So, bonnet up, checked everything as per normal and had a quick scan of the oil filler neck, dipstick and header tank again just to make sure that the failure hadn't progressed further.
Opened up the filling point and in we go....
Notice how there's a very fine copper mix in it. Presumably the heat and forces acting on it causes it to harden and set in whatever crevice it remains stationary in:
Refit, tighten, check all connections and engage!
Reputedly the 'fix' takes under 3 minutes once the engine's up to temperature - so whilst it warmed up, I wondered around like a hawk checking everything.
Exhaust, relatively clean when cold:
Excellent oil pressure as always:
Starting to smoke as it warmed up:
Waiting for warm air from the heater:
Up to temperature:
Top hose is warm now too. Burped the header tank a few times as well, just to get any air out:
Still smokin':
So, did it work? Well, unsuprisingly, not really.
I now have a warm running heater and the car, as before, runs cool - but it's still pressurising the header tank. Not quite as heavily as previously but I doubt it'll last. I'm waiting for that moment when I accelerate hard and *poof*, surround the car with a fine white mist ;D
I'm going to give it the benifit of the doubt, for a little bit, whilst it presumably settles into the system. The car is still driveable however but does drip a nice foamy, now slightly copperised, coolant from the header tank. Time will tell, inevitably - so I'll keep this updated! Out for another drive later this evening (fortunately only down the road) so I'll see what it's like then.
With regards to the product - well, at the price it costs, it's worth a shot. For 6 quid you can't really argue and if you only have a minor leak, it may well seal it well enough to prevent it being an issue (as some others on alternative forums seem to have experienced).
The key thing to bear in mind, however, is that it is no substitute for actually fixing the problem. A head gasket and fittings doesn't really cost the earth and the time taken is well rewarded with the confidence in the engine and it's cooling system - you know what's going on and that it's running within factory spec.
With this 'instant' fix, you don't have any knowledge as to whether the repair will blow out, or lead to an alternative issue, later down the line. It's certainly not one for those amongst you with nervous dispositions, methinks.
So, off with my tape measure in a tick to check some dimensions and get this hustling along. Onwards!
In one of life's little ironies, I replied to a thread on the TDC about slant four head gasket failure and how infrequently they actually occured - and consequently, having said "bet I've cursed myself now", have suffered just that
Recently I'd been experiencing a strange cooling issue, for which I pointed at the thermostat. Basically, it overcooled - running at a 1/4 on the gauge and no more, although sometimes it'd get up to half.
Driving through town a couple of times, it shot up to over half and continued onwards, so I pulled over. On resuming, it seemed fine. Then, unfortunately, I suffered the terminal feeling of cold air out of the heater - although sometimes heat would come back into it, more often than not it was cold.
In a last-ditch attempt, I switched the coolant out, change the thermostat, bled it all and seemed fine. No overheating but I was now driving what appeared to be a 130BHP kettle, given the steam exiting from behind it.
Header tank's heavily pressurised too now, so, despite running cool and running strong, the head gasket has gone between a combustion chamber and a waterway. The oil's still lovely and clean as is the rocker cover so it'd seem that's the problem.
Fresh coolant is a bit murky, probably due to exhaust and combustion gases getting into it:
Anyway, my weapon of choice was K-seal, Permanant Coolant Leak Repair. Purchased for the almighty sum of 6 quid off eBay, I thought it worth a shot - considering the engine will be going soon (fingers crossed), it makes no difference if it worked or not.
If it did work, however, then it'd give me the chance to continue hooning around in it in the meantime.
I don't think you really want to swallow this:
So, bonnet up, checked everything as per normal and had a quick scan of the oil filler neck, dipstick and header tank again just to make sure that the failure hadn't progressed further.
Opened up the filling point and in we go....
Notice how there's a very fine copper mix in it. Presumably the heat and forces acting on it causes it to harden and set in whatever crevice it remains stationary in:
Refit, tighten, check all connections and engage!
Reputedly the 'fix' takes under 3 minutes once the engine's up to temperature - so whilst it warmed up, I wondered around like a hawk checking everything.
Exhaust, relatively clean when cold:
Excellent oil pressure as always:
Starting to smoke as it warmed up:
Waiting for warm air from the heater:
Up to temperature:
Top hose is warm now too. Burped the header tank a few times as well, just to get any air out:
Still smokin':
So, did it work? Well, unsuprisingly, not really.
I now have a warm running heater and the car, as before, runs cool - but it's still pressurising the header tank. Not quite as heavily as previously but I doubt it'll last. I'm waiting for that moment when I accelerate hard and *poof*, surround the car with a fine white mist ;D
I'm going to give it the benifit of the doubt, for a little bit, whilst it presumably settles into the system. The car is still driveable however but does drip a nice foamy, now slightly copperised, coolant from the header tank. Time will tell, inevitably - so I'll keep this updated! Out for another drive later this evening (fortunately only down the road) so I'll see what it's like then.
With regards to the product - well, at the price it costs, it's worth a shot. For 6 quid you can't really argue and if you only have a minor leak, it may well seal it well enough to prevent it being an issue (as some others on alternative forums seem to have experienced).
The key thing to bear in mind, however, is that it is no substitute for actually fixing the problem. A head gasket and fittings doesn't really cost the earth and the time taken is well rewarded with the confidence in the engine and it's cooling system - you know what's going on and that it's running within factory spec.
With this 'instant' fix, you don't have any knowledge as to whether the repair will blow out, or lead to an alternative issue, later down the line. It's certainly not one for those amongst you with nervous dispositions, methinks.
So, off with my tape measure in a tick to check some dimensions and get this hustling along. Onwards!