Head Gasket

Gary ITR

I'm doing the head gasket of my 92 mirage myself. The car wasn't driven at all while it was gone. Just went down one day to find water in the oil and when i started it gunge started to appear on the filler cap. So it was turned off and not started again, didn't let it overheat or anything. My question is will I still need to have the head skimmed? Even though the car wasn't driven?

Marcus.Aurelius

Onkle wrote:

I'm doing the head gasket of my 92 mirage myself. The car wasn't driven at all while it was gone. Just went down one day to find water in the oil and when i started it gunge started to appear on the filler cap. So it was turned off and not started again, didn't let it overheat or anything. My question is will I still need to have the head skimmed? Even though the car wasn't driven?

Might be a good idea anyway, depending on how much you get it done for!

Interceptor

There shouldn't be any need if the engine didn't overheat but its simple to check.

With the head removed, get a decent stainless steel ruler (€10 from a tool shop) and hold the edge at 90 degrees to the face of the head and check it diagonally from corner to corner to see if there is any warping. If there is a problem, the rulers edge will not sit flat against the head or you will see a gap under the ruler. Skimming is unlikely to be more than €100 with the head stripped but you will need to take out cams, valves, plugs etc and if this is beyond your capability the skimming will cost more.

'cptr

crosstownk

It's possible that you may get away with it. But when you reassemble the head and start the engine up and then find the HG is still leaking due to warping you will, to say least, curse very loudly!

Interceptors advice is good but you will really need to pay close attention and might find it handy to use some very fine feeler blades.

Personally, I'd get the head skimmed.

Bradidup

You could regret it if you lumped the motor back together and found the gasket blown again.
Any good auto machine shop will also check for cracks in the head.

Gary ITR

To be honest I only got the car to tinker with, I was thinking that the head gasket might be a bridge too far and I really don't want to spend any money on it that I don't need to. I didn't allow the car to overheat at all and it wasn't driven while the gasket was gone... I'll try Interceptor's tip and see what happens

@crosstownk I'll keep my swearbox handy!!!

Darragh29

Onkle wrote:

I'm doing the head gasket of my 92 mirage myself. The car wasn't driven at all while it was gone. Just went down one day to find water in the oil and when i started it gunge started to appear on the filler cap. So it was turned off and not started again, didn't let it overheat or anything. My question is will I still need to have the head skimmed? Even though the car wasn't driven?

Advice: Never ever ever ever do a head gasket without having the head skimmed. Its too much hassle and expense to do a head gasket and have to do the job again cos the head gasket did need to be skimmed but you decided to take a chance on it. If the distortion is minor, then the machine shop will just take a small skim of the head and you'll know that the head is not distorted.

Also, recently I did a head gasket on an Opel Astra (as part of a timing belt breakage job), the valves were badly bent and had to be replaced. When I brought the head to the machine shop to be skimmed, they steam cleaned it and they also checked out the rest of the components in the head. These guys do this work all day every day and tend to notice the tiniest fault that a mechanic might not pick up, especially if the head is dirty. In my case, they discoved two tiny cracks in the valve guides that I was able to get replaced there and then, and the head looked like new. Had I refitted this head, withyout having the valve guides replaced, it could have come back under warranty within a short time.

That's my two cents worth!