Losing Water And Oil...

[fulani 4]

Trackday yesterday, all is fine, even on the way home. Left my parents' house and got 2 miles down the road before it starts overheating. No hot air coming in through the vents either.

Managed to limp it back to my parents' place, and the AA man came out. He thought it was either the head gasket (it loses about a pint of water every 5 minutes, and all the oil I topped it up with on Sunday is gone...) or the inlet manifold gasket. Obviously I'm hoping for the latter, but would it be losing water and oil from there?

I was going to take it down to X Sport in Totton as my brakes need adjusting anyway, but having looked at my bank balance, it looks like I'm going to have to attempt this one myself. Is it a relatively easy job?

[fulani 4]

OK, I've ordered an inlet manifold gasket from GSF, but they can only get it in on Monday. Until then, shall I use some instant gasket on it and chuck a tin of radweld in the coolant? Or will that not work/hold and be a total waste of time?

[jackherer 543]

Don't use radweld or anything like that.

 

If you go to an old school motor factors they will sell you a sheet of generic gasket card for a few pence that you can cut to the right shape. Either use the old gasket as a template or you can press the inlet mani itself against the card and it will leave an indentation where you need to cut.

[fulani 4]

Don't use radweld or anything like that.

If you go to an old school motor factors they will sell you a sheet of generic gasket card for a few pence that you can cut to the right shape. Either use the old gasket as a template or you can press the inlet mani itself against the card and it will leave an indentation where you need to cut.

 

Sounds good, I was thinking of making a temporary cardboard one. I have a spare engine with inlet manifold still attached though, if I take that off, will the gasket transfer? I was thinking probably not.

 

Old school motor factors just don't seem to exist any more.

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

i dont think theres oilways in the manifold. I would think its more likely to be the h gasket.

 

any water in the oil or vice versa?

[Anthony 1,003]

Just use RTV on the manifold - no need for a gasket

 

As said, there's no oilways in the inlet manifold, so if it's using lots of oil and water with no evidence of a leak then it doesn't sound good. If you haven't already done so, do a compression check and see if one or more cylinders is badly down on compression - to be losing that amount of coolant, I'm wondering if you've cracked a liner or something?

[fulani 4]

There's no water in the oil as far as I can see, water coming from the front of the block, and oil from the back.

 

Compression test is a good idea, if only I had one of them bleedin' dooberrys.

[Guest crxtom]

i dont think theres oilways in the manifold. I would think its more likely to be the h gasket.

 

any water in the oil or vice versa?

 

Im thinking the same, doenst always even have to mix.

[simonb 0]

Im thinking the same, doenst always even have to mix.

 

Had the same with my old 1.9 a few years back. No symptoms apart from oil and water going missing, then one day after a run - pop. Sounded like an impreza turbo for about 1 min then wouldn't even turn over. Took out a spark plug and nearly got an eye-full of coolant as it had all poured into the cylinder.

 

Inlet has no oil-ways. Oly thing near that are the coolant-to-throttle-body hoses from the header tank. If they are OK then as a test, you gould try nipping up the head bolts (just a tad) and see if that makes a difference. If it does then HG is probably failing.

 

HTH

[fulani 4]

I don't like the sound of all of this - it's a recently rebuilt engine with a brand new head gasket!

 

The only thing I can afford to do right now is replace the inlet manifold gasket. I'll give that a go, and if that doesn't solve it I may cry. It's only a few months since I spent loads on her getting the new engine in, adding power steering etc.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

Water can seap out of the inlet gasket but not really that much unless your very unlucky, A easy test to see if water is getting into the bores is whip the plugs out and if you have got a really clean one it's not good new's, If they are all a normal colouring it's a good sign

How much oil are you talking of?

 

I guess your looking at adjusting the rear brakes, this if the handbrake is 1 13mm nut under the cover inside, Failing that it might be new caliper's

[fulani 4]

Right, got an inlet manifold gasket from GSF, back to the car and fired it up again. It appears to be leaking from the right hand lower part of the inlet manifold. Losing loads of coolant, but no oil in it. No mayonnaise in filler cap, and no oil lost since I topped it up. I guess maybe it lost some oil on the trackday for whatever reason.

So good news is I think it's just the inlet manifold. Bad news is I can't get the fugging thing off. I had a practice on my spare engine, attaching and removing the inlet manifold from that - all good. But of course in the car, there are countless cables, hoses and random bits of engine in the way. I literally can't get any tools to 4 of the 8 bolts required, and that's just the engine side. I assume there's more fixings on the other end of it?

Trouble is, it's losing so much water I won't even be able to drive it to the garage around the corner. Will chucking a can of radweld in do anything to stem the flow?

This is just the most frustrating thing ever. I've finally got the new engine, power steering and lighter clutch in there. New winter tyres, new brakes and was about to get braided hoses put in to finish it off. Then it was a visit to the dent man, followed by a respray, and the car was perfect. Now I just want to whack the f*** out of it with a cricket bat or something.

[Peetypug 5]

there are 5 nuts that hold the manifold on to the head and one under the center of it at the front

 

look here

 

you should be able to get to them all from the top of the manifold, the hardest one is the one under the front of it. you can get to that from under the car

hope this helps

Edited December 11, 2007 by sorrentopete

[SamGTi 0]

All 5 bolts can be got to from above the manifold, it just needs a combination of spanners and sockets as space is tight on a couple of them

Edited December 11, 2007 by SamGTi

[fulani 4]

All 6 bolts can be got to from above the manifold, it just needs a combination of spanners and sockets as space is tight on a couple of them

 

 

Do I need to remove the fuel rail? I can only see 4 bolts, and I broke the oil breather mounting trying to get to one of those.

[Peetypug 5]

no if you look at the pic of the manifold there is, 1 at either end, 1 above each pair of inlets and 1 in the center between the the inlets

[fulani 4]

no if you look at the pic of the manifold there is, 1 at either end, 1 above each pair of inlets and 1 in the center between the the inlets

 

Sorry yeah, I'm getting confused between this and another job I have on my XS.

 

Right, I can now work out where the 5 bolts are. If I do, by some feat of extra-human ingenuity and bendiness manage to get these 5 bolts off, will it then come far enough off the head that I can start cleaning the mating surfaces and getting ready to stick the new gasket in?

[SamGTi 0]

Sorry yeah, I'm getting confused between this and another job I have on my XS.

 

Right, I can now work out where the 5 bolts are. If I do, by some feat of extra-human ingenuity and bendiness manage to get these 5 bolts off, will it then come far enough off the head that I can start cleaning the mating surfaces and getting ready to stick the new gasket in?

 

Yeah it will (I support mine with rope attatched to my strut brace to keep it out of the way). You will have to remove the breather hose on the bottom of the manifold though

[Peetypug 5]

yeah i'm sure there aint much stopping it then

the last time i took it off, i kind of kept most stuff connected and rolled it over onto the top of the engine

but dont forget the nut undernieth

[fulani 4]

Right, in an effort to understand this properly I've brought my spare manifold up from the garage. The 5 bolts I need to remove are marked in red - right?

 

 

What's just worrying me more, having done this, is where are the water channels? I don't see where the water could be leaking from...

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

I can;t remember if the engine had the stay bar fitted on the inlet, This makes changing it a complete bast**d which is one reason why I never fit them back on.

The water holes in the head just butt up against the inlet manifold where the 2 tab's stick out on it at the bottom

 

If you get stuck let me know as I might be done one day if your around

[steve@cornwall 100]

Tip for the awkward nuts at each end - use the open end of a 13mm combination spanner at 90 Degrees, turn with a sturdy screwdriver through the ring end

You can see the waterways in this pic, and where it's damaged the (wrong) manifold gasket!

[madspikes 41 1 Cars]

Before fitting the new gasket make sure it fits right. I bought a "patten part" gasket once and the it didnt have the cut outs for the injectors, but I didnt notice.... I then spent the next few months try to get it to idle... Only to find the gasket was at fault...

 

Once you have the inlet manifold back on its worth turning the car over a few times without the plugs in, as coolent can fill the cylinders as you remove the inlet manifold, and compressing a cylinder full of coolent isnt good for the engine.

 

Mad.

Edited December 12, 2007 by madspikes