75ZT Community

But is it Inlet or head gasket?

Starts up on 3 cyls and clears immediately.
Emits vapour from exhaust for half a mile.
Requires coolant top up of 1/4 pint after a longish run.
Coolant still under pressure when cold in morning.
Runs fine otherwise.
No mayo or oil contamination.

Tell me its only the inlet gasket!

Chris

Unfortunately I think the clue is the "coolant still under pressure when cold in the morning" if the water was leaking into the inlet manifold then I don't think the coolant would pressurize. But if it was a leak into a cyl it would pressurize and some of it would return into the cyl
somebody tell me i'm wrong?

Hi Dave and thanks for the suggestions.

I'll let Horners Swinton give it an overnight pressure test and then bite the bullit!

Cheers

Chris

Update

Horners replaced the head gasket, water pump and cambelt. Also they hylomarred the bottom of the sleeves to make sure they were sealed ok. I also had a new radiator fitted just to put the bill up a bit more!.

Sadly it only lasted a couple of hundred miles before the symptons returned and we had to be transportered home from Yorkshire once again.

Back to the garage and drawing board. Happy Days!

Chris

Hi Chris, I hope you can root out the source of the problem.

Hi Jürgen

Nice to hear from you again.
Yes its a bit of a worry but I'm sure they'll sort it out before I'm broke!

Chris

Any news? My suspicion would be cracked head or insufficient clamping - pressure test should determine the 1st.

Back together again this week after a head skim and pressure test. New longbolts fitted this time too.

Head had "blemishes on the surface".

I wondered about clamping pressure but who will ever know. The failure was apparently on no.1 cylider but with no obvious gasket break except that piston crown was cleaner than the other three.

Got charged another £90 for the privilege!

I'm checking the coolant every morning and so far so good. The rear end water vapour has subsided but that could be the warmer weather or its all been evapourated out of the system.

On board Display has now thrown a wobbler but last time it did that it self corrected.

Chris

Wonder what type of gasket was used.

Only that it was an MLS (Multi Layer Steel Gasket) but make unknown.

The only mls I would rule out using pending further info is the N-Series gasket. My concern is that it was developed for the N-Series engine which may or may not have the exact same cylinder head as the K-Series engine, I have read that the head for the N-Series was re-engineered in light of known problems with that of the K-Series.