Blown Head Gasket

Blown Head Gasket Replacement

My Saturday went well after fitting the new alternator and belt, but my Sunday didn't work out well at all.

Went something like this.

So that will be coolant all over the forecourt of the garage, not good, get her home and start stripping it down for investigation.

Second alternator off and the coolant hoses away along with the intercooler pipes it was time to strip off the inlet and exhaust manifolds.

Mustn't forget the thermostat housing and as they are getting quite a rare commodity they have to be treated with respect.

Exhaust manifold coming off now.

Now there's a bit of space, time to get the rockers out.

Rocker box cover off and injector pipes disconnected, pulled the rockers off and out with the head bolts, pop the top and see whats in there.

Oh dear.

Not surprised to find a cylinder full of water but it was far from a welcome sight.

The gasket had rotted out between cylinders 3 and 4, I would say the head is scrap.

Lots of cleaning and scraping to clean up the deck of the block and make it clean and ready for the next step of fitting the new head gasket and another head.

Found me a secondhand head, turns out I had to remove it from the engine myself, not what I had planned but hey ho.

Not in bad shape, nothing a good clean won't solve.

Head laid on the bench and I just couldn't get the third injector out, had to leave it with the seller to get it removed and popped back a few days later to pick it up.

Head finally home for cleaning and inspection.

Uh Oh, valve stem seals at the top of the valves means that the oil was working it's way down, not great and needs to be sorted.

 My goodies were amassing to facilitate the rebuild, Elring head gasket, top end gasket and seal set and a full set of silicone coolant hoses.

One of my best investments, valve spring compressor, couldn't have done it without this.

Injector puller to get my injectors out of my original head, popped straight out, doddle it was.

So the new head had issues, stem seals being one, but the carbon build up on the exhaust valves was horrendous and the worst I've ever seen.

Wire wheel cleaned them up and away we go for cleaning, lapping in a new sealing face and reassembly.

Friday night sat in the kitchen lapping valves, magic.

Now the valves are lapped in it was time to fit new valve stem seals, nothing fancy just a 13mm deep socket and a hammer to knock them on.

All fitted and on to the next bit.

Oiled the valve stems prior to fitting in the guides, fitted the springs and washers and used the valve spring compressor to help fit the securing colletts, great tool and worth every penny.

Head is now fully assembled and ready to go on.

Used a product called Well Seal to coat the head gasket both sides before fitting it and the head bolts went in good and easy, new set of head bolts as I didn't know how many times the others had been used, max 5 times, all torqued down and set with the angle gauge, happy days, injectors fitted with some copper paste and clamps torqued down.

Valve caps fitted with a dab of fresh engine oil, the rocker shaft was fitted and torqued down, the valve lash was set using the rule of 9, main reason for leaving the glow plugs out until the last was to allow the engine to run easily for the valve lash setting.

In my collection of new bit was the blue silicone hose set that I really liked, the originals had perished a little and needed replaced anyway and these were an expensive upgrade but they do look cool.

Brand new Bosch water pump going in too as I didn't want to risk the old one failing me after having gone to so much trouble with the head gasket.

And that's a wrap, all buttoned up and filled with coolant, injector unions fitted and the bleed off pipe banjos got new copper washers, glow plugs in and wires connected, hoo ya, time to start it up and get a test run out of it.

Test run successful and I will admit that I was nervous.

So far I've put close to 1000kms on it and it hasn't missed a beat, although some other things have happened lol.