How Can I Tell If My Head or Gasket Has Gone

[jims-terrano]

HI All, well as some of you know I've had a water leak for a while now and K-Seal didn't touch it. The motor is now on very light duties now as I don't trust it anymore, wife uses it for work and probably does around 6 miles a day at most and sometimes the odd 10 to 15 mile round trip. I topped it up yesterday and she did approx 10 to 12 miles last night. This morning it was down below bottom of expansion bottle again.
At first I thought it was a core plug but I'm now starting to think it's a lot worse than that.
I've been keeping an eye on the oil cap and dipstick and so far there has been no sign of water at all but not checked today as wife will not stop driving the bloody thing:doh

How can I tell if the head or gasket is buggered? how hard a job is the head gasket? I'm proper skint so doubt I can afford a garage to do any work for me.
I've had the car for about 9 years and has been pretty good really but this last year I've spent a lot of money having welding and things done. I really don't think buying another is an option so with MOT around the corner in July may be the final nail is going into the coffin which is a shame as it's been such a good car.

Jim

 

[makeitfit]

Dont panic , dont panic
Head could be gone between waterway and piston or anywhere other than oil way. I fixed my daughters golf which was totaly goosed and looked like a steam engine while driving along:lol I used "Steel Seal". it's about 25 quid a bottle but did the job. You MUST follow the instructions exactly.
So unless you can get one of those gas tests done by a garage stick some steal seal init:thumbs

 

[extreme-4x4]

i just acquired a very nice lwb w reg tdi
that someone left in a field over the winter and you guessed it it had frozen solid

new parts required to fix it

new oil cooler - this is likely your problem . its an ally cover plate below the inlet manifold and behind the starter motor. this one was cracked in two and leaked where you describe
got mine from nissan first - very good service

new rad was required- as mine was like a sieve

new water pump- as they tried to start it frozen and literally ripped the impaler of inside the casing - lucky only broke the pump and wore the casing a little

heater matrix i got the plumber at work to pressure test it passed the 1 bar test but once i connected it to the cooling system it leaked . - only for 15 mind as id already put k - seal in the system .

its all fixed now and holding water tight . no damage to head gasket or core plugs


my bet is its your oil cooler on side of engine as described at the top . you will get one easy of one of the members . a good days work to fit . make sure you get a gasket and oils seals from nissan you will need them to replace . cant imagine they will be expensive

 

[clivvy]

it sounds like this oil cooler jobby is much lower down than Jims leak...??

i think when a head gasket is going, don't you get a creamy froth in the oil filler cap?

jim, have you crawled under your car witha bright inspection lamp? might be worth a go, then you can check this oil cooler thingy?

 

[extreme-4x4]

however if you are getting water blowing out of the expansion tank - you could have a leak on the head gasket - but i doublt it ive driven my red one with no water at all 7 miles towing that big pathfinder terrano r3m up the mountain roads in wales . and the gasket never failed . just re filled at services and went on

but if its gone its gone from the cylinder to the water way and it will be pressureing your system - the only real way is the chemical test at your local garage - they test for gasses in your water - simples around 30.00 in most places


but i still recon its your oil cooler - drive it until its up to temp then see if hoses are pressured up - if its not like normal pressure then you are leaking water then while its warm look for damp on the cooler

 

[jims-terrano]

Not getting water blowing out the exp bottle.

Wish wife would leave it alone for long enough to cool on a weekend so I can try climbing underneath. I'll end up disconnecting the flippin battery at this rate so she can't start the thing:doh

I'm pretty sure water is coming from the head area but it's so difficult to see. I'm still hoping that we can keep it limping along till the better weather comes so that I can take it off the road and may be start taking things apart to get a better look but the worse the water leak seems to be getting the less likely that luxury seems.

Wish I could afford a fresh one to start all over again:nenau

Jim

 

[briggie]

is the oil filler cap contaminated ?

 

[extreme-4x4]

is the oil filler cap contaminated ?

it wont be , there a several ways the head gasket can go , but if its not gone between the oil flow and the water flow you wont get cream in oil

as stated it can blow in several ways all giving separate symptoms .

the oil cooler is right behind the starter but you can see it through the gap behind the drivers side wheel. as its so close to the joint of the head , it will give the impression the head gasket is gone. i thought that too till i stripped it down .

however having done the oil cooler thing myself its easy to see that is a much weeker point than the head gasket. there are many core plugs in that area too . but again the cooler failed long before any of them .

both me and the previous owner who left it in a feild next to a river in wales :thumbs both inspected the failed cooler and both came to the conclusion that was where the truck was weeping water for the year prior to freezing . yes the freezing destroyed it but it had failed on its own long before

have a look you will see it through the gap ...


or pop it down the local garage , for a test only takes a few mins .

 

[paulp]

head gasket

Hi When i suspected the head gasket(s) had gone on my V8 disco, I called the AA and the test was free, took a few minutes,
bloody repair was not free though.
piece of junk disco - now im getting all bitter and twisted

paulp

 

[Terranosaurus]

Jim - if it comes to it and the head gasket needs doing, give me a shout. Will only take us a couple of hours to whip it off. Probably best to get it pressure tested whilst off and if warped at all skimmed, had a 300Tdi disco head done with mega extensive maching a few months back by Lockside Engineering in Cas' and was only £165, but shouldn't even be that much really unless we were to find any problems, a couple more hours to put back together and job done - that's all assuming the head gasket is the problem.

 

[jims-terrano]

Cheers Simon, that's really good of you. I've got some time off over Easter so I'll try and investigate then and may be take some photo's.

Thanks Everyone
Jim

 

[sidsid06]

a mate had his head gasket go on his toyota surf! which i belive are prone to going on them!!! he had no mayo on the oil filer cap ect!!! the only thing that happend was the engine temp would rise now and again to the red zone and then back to normal......... then it went all together and he said it looked like a steam powered car going up the road!!!!!!!!!

 

[jims-terrano]

a mate had his head gasket go on his toyota surf! which i belive are prone to going on them!!! he had no mayo on the oil filer cap ect!!! the only thing that happend was the engine temp would rise now and again to the red zone and then back to normal......... then it went all together and he said it looked like a steam powered car going up the road!!!!!!!!!

That's scary!!!!! you'g of thought it was Thermostat sticking wouldn't you.

Well we won't be doing much mileage in it and we have recovery and both have mobiles. Got to say when wife goes out at night I encourage her to use other car to be on the safe side.

Jim

 

[sidsid06]

yes thats all he thought was wrong with his was a buggered thermostat.... he put a new 1 in and it still done it... it only used a bit of water to start with then it got more and more thirsty till pop and he had very steamy windows!!!!

 

[jims-terrano]

Today's Installment

Right guys I've been having a look around and since the oil cooler has been mentioned I've paid more attention to it.
After I've been look around in engine bay I've noticed that since this garage changed my starter the Dip Stick Tube is tie wrapped to the coorigated engine loom. Just lower down from the tie wrap there is a bracket that the dip stick tube should be bolted to the engine block but isn't. This bolt appears to be one of the top bolts for the oil cooler! can anyone confirm this please?

If it is the garage seem to of removed the bolt to move the dip stick tube to allow the starter room to come out of it's location and then either forgotten the bolt or lost the bloody thing.

Jim

 

[clivvy]

Right guys I've been having a look around and since the oil cooler has been mentioned I've paid more attention to it.
After I've been look around in engine bay I've noticed that since this garage changed my starter the Dip Stick Tube is tie wrapped to the coorigated engine loom. Just lower down from the tie wrap there is a bracket that the dip stick tube should be bolted to the engine block but isn't. This bolt appears to be one of the top bolts for the oil cooler! can anyone confirm this please?

If it is the garage seem to of removed the bolt to move the dip stick tube to allow the starter room to come out of it's location and then either forgotten the bolt or lost the bloody thing.

Jim

i'll just pop out and have a look at mine...

 

[clivvy]

here you go, look what its near...

 

[jims-terrano]

That's the bugger!!!! is it top of oil cooler? I can't tell.

Jim

 

[extreme-4x4]

yep thats the one . behind that 8x4 inch ally plate is where the oil cooler is kept.
if you got a bolt missing you could have a gasket issue ...

however the actual mould of the plate appears to be prone to cracking i imagine that could be the case if its not secure .

but thats most likely you water leak one way or another

 

[jims-terrano]

Praise be to the all knowing extreme:bow:bow:bow:bow

So my best bet is to look through the wheel arch and confirm this is the issue and then get the gaskets and seals from Nissan. Remove the oil cooler, give it a good check over and then refit with new seals arnd gasket.

or

Could I get away with sticking a bolt in and see what happens?

Also will this be a standard bolt or should I pay through the nose and order one from Nissan?

Jim