Help! Possible Head Gasket Issue

[Dan Ingram 1]

I struggled to get my car to start after work today, thinking it was the battery I put a spare one on but still had the same problem. I took it for a run out to see if it just needed a charge. The stop light came on and the temp went up so I checked the water and it was very low. Hoping that it was just a lack of water that was causing the problem I set off again, now there is white smoke coming out of the exhaust, the engine appears to have chucked a load of oil all over the engine bay and I cant see where. Also while driving it appears to be running on 3 cylinders unless under load in which case it runs fine.

 

As far as I can tell it must be the headgasket but does anyone else think any differently before I start taking the engine to pieces???

[SamGTi 0]

Not you too? I am in the middle of an engine swap myself. Hope you can sort it, however the symptoms you described are exactly what happened to mine 2 weeks ago and mine is HG failure!

[Dan Ingram 1]

I've got a spare head so i'm going to drop that in at road and rally tomorrow and get it checked over then if it is the headgasket I can get it all sorted at the weekend.

 

How come your swapping the whole engine??

[SamGTi 0]

Coz I thought it would be fun! And mine has done 143k so I didn't see the point in just swapping over my HG with that sort of mileage (and I was told on here it's easier to just swap the engine anyway - yeah right! )

[Dan Ingram 1]

Well if you need a hand with that let me know. I've done a few of those now.

[SamGTi 0]

Well if you need a hand with that let me know. I've done a few of those now.

 

PM'd!

[pip470 61]

Will also offer my services to you both if needed, not that far away. To be honest even if its just to come and chat to you whilst in the cold, I hate working in the cold on my own. Phill