Calling Mr Woods - Mk1 Head Gasket

[waynestoyotamr2]

Been offered a Mk1 really really cheap as chips, immaculate bodywork, but it has a "suspected cylinder head" Is there anyway when I inspect the car that I can confirm whether the head has gone?

Isnt there a way to do a test by removing the plugs and testing the compression on each cylinder?

Or is there another way? By putting a power/liquid in the coolant?

Help appreciated/required.

[reggie]

Depends how the cylinder head has gone. If it's gone between the coolant and the cylinder then you can just try starting the car with the radiator cap off. This will force the coolant out of the opening rythmically in time with the engine revolutions. If it's gone between cylinders then a pressure test with all of the sparks out should report this.

[Lauren]

you could do a compression test but it wouldn't necessarily be conclusive of a head gasket failure.

You can check for oil in the water and vice versa, but its not always blindingly obvious. Best bet would be to start it up and see how it runs.

do obvious things like checking coolant levels. Let it fully warm up, look at exhaust etc. See if its burning oil ie drive it up to say 5K in second then lift off and watch for blue smoke in your mirror.

If its really that cheap it'd be worth doing an engine swop if it needs it.

HTH

[waynestoyotamr2]

If its really that cheap it'd be worth doing an engine swop if it needs it.

My thoughts exactly Lauren.

Basically, the story goes that the current owner was caning the M62 when the Mk1 spat all its coolant out all over the motorway - causing it to overheat. RAC man turned up and said "head gasket has gone mate". Current owner then took the car to TOYOTA (ouch) and had the coolant system refilled, bled etc.... Car has ran fine, Toyota dealership left it running for over an hour (thats another £70 please sir) and it didnt over heat. Current owner has now "lost faith" in the car, despite the fact it now seems to be running fine with him (has never blown coolant out again, or over heated in 3 months since)

I would of thought to of looked for a water/oil mix first off (as I did a head gasket myself twice, on an old Metro I had) but if the coolant system has been refreshed, obviously, it would of all gone.

I guess my next question is, what are these compression test tools? Can they be bought from standard motor factor type people? (Halfords) and do I need a Phd to operate them!!

Also, what would cause a Mk1 to suddenly lose its coolant?

[Lauren]

Aha,

I had exactly the same problem with Yummy when it was originally an NA. What it would do is be absolutely fine with no coolant loss or overheating issues running around town. Toyota pressure tested and played around with it and found no problems.

Then i'd go on the motorway and cruise at say 90mph for 20mins, then not long after that it would dump the entire contents of the coolant on the rep mobiles behind me!

Turned out the head was warping when the engine got hot which only really happenned when it had been running at speed for a while on the motorway.

Had the headgasket done and this cured it.

This could well be whats happening with this car.

[MegatronUK]

Got a complete engine if you are looking for a replacement, everything inc ecu, loom, gearbox, driveshafts (even the daft massive boot airbox thingy) etc.. only thing you'd need would be a clutch. 96k, ran ok before being removed. Grubby, but ok. PM me if you're interested.

[PW@Woodsport]

all of the above from everyone is sound advice,or look at the other thread for the sniff test....but i dont think this car has a HG failure,it would pressurize up at every opportunity and not just once and go away....

Ive just had a car at the garage that toyota condemned the head gasket on,their exact words "we dont know how that car is running the HG is that badly gone" to cut a long story short after it came to me i found that the pressure cap was giving way under engine load and it was dumping its coolant at high revs,i stuck this cap onto a perfect car and that too dumped coolant=faulty cap...£15 later the problem was cured,as a point of interest toyota wanted nearly a grand to replace the gasket when all it needed was a cap!

My point is that it could be anything causing the one off overheating,but even if it is a HG failure the car sounds worth it even if it does need a few hundred quid spending on it.My best guess would be that it isnt a HG failure simply down to the fact that it hasnt happened since.

[Dave Burke]

Mine overheated once and dumped its coolant outside a brothel in Birmingham (we were driving past, honest).

Refilled the coolant, and it's been fine ever since, and this is about a year later, doing 50 miles a day.

My best guess is that the mechanics who serviced it didn't bleed it properly, but I think it's one of those things that I'll never really know why it happened.