Headgasket?

[greens117]

Found oil in my coolant tank in my vauxhall combo 2004 van about three months ago.
Put some k seal in and it seemed to do the job for a couple of months temp and water where fine, friday checked the water and it was low toped it up again checked it again tonight after work and its low again there is a tiny amount of oil on the surface, but no visable signs in the engine no "mayo" build up has the head gasket gone ? and any ideas how much it cost on my type of van? also heard about the oil coolant valve sometimes leaks not sure the 1.7di have thease tho cheers in adavnce.
bang goes the ipad now !
lee

[Over Carl]

That isuzu engine is normally tough as old boots. Oil in water and water keep dropping doesn't look good with regards to head gasket, but I still would do a few more checks - if you have access to a compression tester that can give you a fairly good indication (costs about £15 to buy at screwfix, but they annoyingly don't mark them in bar). Alternatively you can take it to a trusted mechanic - there is some chemical you can put in the water which changes to a tell tale colour in the event of combustion products being present in the water.

Edit: Check your dipstick and look at the state of the oil. If doesn't look normalish (I'm not talking about clean or dirty, I'm talking major water mixture), do not even start the van unless you consider the engine to be scrap.

[greens117]

That isuzu engine is normally tough as old boots. Oil in water and water keep dropping doesn't look good with regards to head gasket, but I still would do a few more checks - if you have access to a compression tester that can give you a fairly good indication (costs about £15 to buy at screwfix, but they annoyingly don't mark them in bar). Alternatively you can take it to a trusted mechanic - there is some chemical you can put in the water which changes to a tell tale colour in the event of combustion products being present in the water.

Edit: Check your dipstick and look at the state of the oil. If doesn't look normalish (I'm not talking about clean or dirty, I'm talking major water mixture), do not even start the van unless you consider the engine to be scrap.

oil in the engine looks fine just the coolant seems to have oil thats all
what i really want to know if there is another fault atributed to this and price or i might as well try and get rid , pissed off alll my saveings for a rainy day! holiday cannot be used on this peice of shit just my fucking luck ~!

[Over Carl]

If you're lucky could just be a little water leak somewhere, that's why you might as well get it tested.

[greens117]

If you're lucky could just be a little water leak somewhere, that's why you might as well get it tested.

hopefull

[greens117]

will get it looked at tommorow fingers crossed

[carswaps]

Get some stuff called 'Steel seal' its not cheap but is the best stuff ive ever used.

[greens117]

is it easy to do m8 ?

[Over Carl]

If you do choose that kind of route, I have been very highly recommended wondarweld (spelt just like that). You add it to your water, run round as specified then drain. I personally wouldn't dream of using something like this, but it must be pretty hard core as it said to follow the exact directions otherwise it could solidify in your cooling system, jam your water jump and cause the cambelt to skip!

[cosmicma]

might be worth checking the water pump hasn't got a slight leak

is the temp going up when you work the engine ?

2 things can happen when the head gasket fails
the most common that people know about is oil n water mixing causing mayo whiich is a nice visible sign somethings not right but this isn't the most common way head gaskets fail
more common is the gasket to fail between the cylinder and the water jacket which doesn't cause the oil n water to mix
it pressurises the cooling system stopping the coolant circulating and becomes very obvious when you work the engine the temp will rise dramaticly
another obvious tell tale sign is bubbles or pressure build up in the expansion tank

so thats the good news...

worst case scenario is a cracked head you'd be suprised how many diesel engines suffer from this
it would also explain the slight amount of oil your seeing in the expansion tank and this would definitly pressurise the cooling system
when the crack is relativly small they can seal as the engine warms up and expands but they get worse over time
using K Seal etc.. can cure the problem for a while but it won't be a permanent fix

hopefully this isn't your problem and it's just a small water leak or the water pump needs replacing

[windy1603]

not 100% on your age motor if it's DI then not isuzu powered. if GM engine then there there is on most is a oil/water cooler mounted behind the oil filter which is a known weak spot. You can replace the o-rings or the whole cooler assembly. (i also know of a few people who link the water pipes to the cooler and live with the slight oil leak.

To change cooler (or o-rings) remove oil filter and then you should be able to access allen head bolt(s) to remove cooler unit to replace or just renew o-rings. Lots of info on google

[greens117]

Taking it in the garage saturday to get a pressure test will tell them about the o rings, i bled the system and flushed it about for times then replaced the coolant, had a drive round and the water level went down about 2 inches

[greens117]

Ok guys this is the last resort tbh the garage say its not the oil cooler and there saying it may be a headgasket prob but thats gonna cost me fucking big time they want over 800 quid could it just be the water pump ? as ive had a look on google and tbh if they do it all change the gaskets +skim then change the cam belt its gonna cost me big time plus it might not even fix the prob ffs

[Zippeyrude]

id be concerned that the garage says 'may' be

for a grand thats a big guess.

did the garage carry out a pressure test of the cooling system?

[greens117]

found this he will px my van pluss 2400
http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk...yword=VAUXHALL

[greens117]

id be concerned that the garage says 'may' be

for a grand thats a big guess.

did the garage carry out a pressure test of the cooling system?

I know fucking joke tbh

[greens117]

just waiting on my dad to lend me some doh and ill get rid
dad says no
fuckit gonna take a chance

[cosmicma]

head gaskets become pretty obvious when they let go so before you spend any serious amounts of cash on a guess first and foremost if you can get it pressure tested

a couple of things to look out for
is the temp gauge wandering around ( going up when you work the engine and settling back down again when your not )
if you take the expansion bottle cap off when you first start the engine from cold get somebody to rev the engine in nuetral from cold and see if you can see air bubbles in the expansion tank these will be pretty obvious not just one or two

if it's the water pump you need to take the cam cover off the side of the engine ( can be a bit of a struggle ) so you can see the water pump
you will see water dripping from the bottom of the water pump or a rusty deposit where water has been dripping
you should also be able to grab hold of it and check it for play it's usually knackered bearings tha cause the water pump to start leaking in the first place

apart from the pressure test all this can be done with a few spanners and no money and is worth spending an hour or so under the bonnet before you dedicate the best part of a grand on the subgect

[greens117]

they have done a pressure test and it came back that nothing was wrong thats what they said im going to ring them and ask about the water pump
they said the water pump is nothing to do with oil in the expansion tank :/

[cosmicma]

there right it isn't but it would explain the loss of coolant if it's leaking