Jxx

Hi, Ricardo. "I don't know how did you come to this conclusion. It is not doable. The engine gets lowered. " The link you posted. The gentleman from Jordan claims to have done it from above, by raising the engine. Now I've never seen under the lid of a Felicia, but I've always assumed that the major difference in structure was that someone was paid good money to take a large file to the edges on the original Italian body design to give it a more "modern" half sucked sweet look. I guessed that the fundamental body structure was similar. There's my expert ignorance speaking. Now it appears that there's a difference in engine mounts - I have only 2 engine mounts and a stabiliser bar on the bottom left of the engine (right hand side of the car) as confirmed by Papez, although it's a steady bar rather that a loadbearing mount. No idea if all Favorits are like this - mine's 1991. Secondly, although the Haynes BOL talks about dropping the engine, It gives a nice piccy at the top of the page clearly showing the engine raised with the pump removed. So I thought I'd give it a go that way. Sticking the brute up on ramps to have a look underneath and remove the side cover for access revealed a split ns CV joint boot, so I thought that was the first emergency. (Car was still usable with the coolant filler cap loose to prevent pressurisation.) Filthy job with CV grease, changed both boots on the shaft at the same time. I think the inner one was original. Back to the plot. Yesterday. In order if anyone's interested: 1. Put the brute back on ramps, have a good look around for obvious gotchas. Decide to try from above. 2. Remove gearbox steady bar mount. This did not in fact need to be done. There was plenty of room. 3. Remove the bolt through the centre of the steady bar doughnut. 4. Remove the air cleaner assembly for easier access. Release the alternator fixing and remove the fanbelt. 5. Drain the coolant via the drain bolt and save for reuse. (Mine's only about a month old.) 5. Loosen the pump fixing nuts and remove the nuts and washers. Remove the nut and washer from the mounting through bolt. Tap out the plug in the wing. 6. Fit a support bar between the wing gutters and connect the lifting chains to the front engine lifting eye. 7. Undo the jubilee clips securing both ends of the short hose connecting to the pump. Note the location and orientation for replacement. (A 1/4 inch ratchet and small sockets are almost mandatory here, especially for re tightening.) The hose was original and I decided to replace it. 8. Remove the bolt securing the steel pipe connecting the bottom hose and pull down, removing the short coupling hose from the pump. 9. Wind up the chain to take the weight of the engine. Push out the mounting fixing bolt. It came out easily, but the mount had collapsed and the bolt was not correctly lined up with the hole in the wing. It was necessary to push the bolt back into the remains of the mounting, release the load on the lifting support and move the support a couple of inches or so towards the front of the car. Now when I raised the engine it was possible to line up with the hole in the wing and remove the bolt. 10. It was clear that the water pump could not be removed with the fixing bracket in place. 11. Safety. Needing to get back under the car, in case the lifting chain failed, I put a jack and block of wood under the clutch housing. 12. Using a long socket extender, loosen the 3 bracket fixing bolts. This allows the brackets to move about freely. The fixing holes allow for considerable adjustment. I did not remove the bracket, but had to crawl under a second time to loosen it some more. 13. Lift up the engine until the pump can be removed. It took quite a bit of tapping back and forth on the engine mount to free it from the glued on gasket and studs. Yes it can JUST be done, with the mounting bracket still attached to the car. 14. Carefully clean off, as far as possible, all the old gasket, especially round the studs and below them. WARNING. It looked as if the old one was asbestos. This was the worst bit of the job, leaning over the raised wing with a sharp wood chisel and single sided razor blade. I'd hate to have had to do it from below. 15. A smear of LSX (plumber's silicone, designed for leak sealing joints on heating systems) on both sides of the gasket, fit gasket to the studs, a smear of anti seize grease on the studs and wiggle everything so that the pump goes back on the studs. I put the new hoselet and new jubilee clip on the pump before I fitted it. 16. Replace the washers and nuts and tighten. The bottom nut and washer is a bit of a brute, best done from below. 17. Lower the engine carefully (remove the wood and jack first!) so that the mount fits into the bracket, fit the large bolt (smear of anti seize compound) through the wing and fit nut and washer and retighten. 18. Get back under and tighten the 3 mounting bracket screws from below. In my case refit the unnecessarily removed gear change steady rod. Refit the Engine steady bar bolt TIGHT. (I lost mine a few months ago. The engine rock was interesting. 19. Clean up the end of the steel water pipe and fit it together with a new jubilee clip. Line up both clips and tighten securely. It's easy working from underneath to get the clips a little skew wiff. I did and had leaks. Replace the pipe fixing bolts. 20. Remove the support bar and chains. Refit the air cleaner and pipes. 21. Refit the fanbelt and adjust the alternator. Check all electrics are secure. 22. Refill with your favourite beverage, start and test for leaks. Top up as required. 23. Refit the bottom side panel. Replace the wing plug. So, it is possible to do the job from above, I've got the dirt under my fingernails to prove it. I took a few photos if anyone's interested. Interestingly, the engine's been making a horrible rattling noise for a few years now, which I presumed was timing chain. When the leak from the pump started it started to quieten down. I presume the bearing was finally getting some "lubrication". Funnily enough the old pump seems free and no sign of significant play. Nice and quiet now. Thanks, everyone for your input.

Ah, just taken a closer look at the gearbox mounting. I don't follow this: "10.Also i recommend you undo the lower engine mount; the one that holds the gearbox and differential to the car underbody near the gear lever linkages. Undo the front bolt not the rear bolt. This will ease lifting the engine upwards." On my favorit the mounting has one bolt at the top through to the sideframe and another north south as it were through the rubber mounting, The bracket fixed to the body appears to be slotted to allow for adjustment. I suspect that post refers to a Felicia in reply to the original post. Trying to get at it from the top seems worth a try, though.

Thanks for that link, Ricardo. Very Interesting. So it seems to be possible to raise the engine enough to get the brute out from above. That might mean that I don't have to remove the engine mounting first? I don't think I'll have to remove the alternator - just slack off the belt tension enough to remove the belt. I'll have to work underneath to get at the hoses - so I'll need to have the car up on axle stands - I suspect that may mean that I'll have to jack up the RH front suspension arm to allow the engine to be raised to clear the mount and give clearance for the pulley?? Not really happy releasing the mount at the end of the gearbox as well - anyone know if the job's possible without doing this? I'll have a scout around underneath to check clearances - exhaust, gearchange etc first. BTW, thanks for all the advice you gave with the head gasket problem I had a while ago. That seems to be running fine, I've posted a very belated update to that post.

Skoda Favorit 1.3 1991 Been loosing coolant , strangely somewhat intermittent in magnitude. Got worse lately, initially no idea where from. Felt around under water pump, wetness. Mirror and torch showed some leakage from the vent under the pump. Ah, found guilty party. Part obsolete from Skoda, so sourced a Quinten Hazell off fleabay. Hopefully NOS before the Clarius takeover. (I gather that following Clarius going Phatang the QR brand is now owned by Tetrosyl - Bluecol, Carplan, Carlube etc). After a run yesterday, came back after a few hours to find a trail of fluid coming out from underneath beginning under the pump. Of course all appeared dry around the pump. Topped up and drove home. Popped lid and trickle of fluid coming from the pump. Guilty as charged m'lud. Right now all the relevant bolts / nuts are soaking in Laco penetrating fluid. Tomorrow, weather permitting I'll give 'em another soak, get the ol' pig up on ramps, fire her up and see if I can confirm exactly where the leak's coming from. I've got a support bar that sits in the wing gutters with a couple of lifting chains which I bought a few years ago to do the clutch, but I suspect that I'll have to put her on axle stands as well to access the underneath to do the job. In which case I'll chock the underneath as well just in case. The Haynes BOL talks about removing the engine mount and dropping the power unit to enable the pump pulley to clear the bodywork. It doesn't appear possible to raise the engine to gain clearance from what I can see. What I'm asking is for any tips on changing the brute from anyone who has done the job. I'd appreciate any advice and gotchas before I start what looks like quite an awkward job.

Very belated update. Sorry, things have been manic here, personal reasons. Head gasket job seems ok. I tried flushing out the heater matrix out with a modified garden sprayer that i have modified to top up pressurised central heating systems with corrosion inhibitor. Several goes flow and backflow. An incredible amount of muck came out. Got me from cool to warm for the winter. I need to get the brute out and backflush it properly and clean out the matrix air side as recardo suggested. Ricardo - you were right - there is a hot air control flap - as well as the water valve assembly. I'll have to check that out as well. It's just the pain of removing the wiper motor assy as well to get ot out. (Time and all that). In the end I didn't change the valve seals - the cowboys sent me the wrong seals - in an open packet - and I had to get the head back on. The time they took to send me the right ones proved I made the right decision. Got away with it. Oil consumption zilch, no smoke. Skimming the gasket seems to have upset the mixture settings a bit. Tends to jerk ocasionally at low revs under load, and the co figure was silly low at MOT last year. (that's if his equipment was ok.) I'll have to give it a bit of a tweak sometime. Had to change the rad. There was a small weep at the tophose connection which suddenly turned to a plastic rad inlet pipe fracture, fortunately very near home, so nothing boiled. The fan stat was weeping a bit at the aluminium sealing washer, so changed that for an o ring. Been loosing some water, seemd a bit intermittant, so worried about the new gasket. No mayo in the oil filler cap, oil ok, plugs looked ok, running fine. A little damp from the water pump vent hole, wet behind the pully. Aha. Water loss getting worse. Took it for a 10 mile or so run yesterday, came back a few hours later to find a streak of aqueous fluid coming from under the car, somewhere below the pump. All now dry inside. No sign where it had come from. Topped up and drove home. Popped the lid, and behold a nice trickle from around the pump. So hopefully head gasket innocent. Will start a new thread re changing the pump. Many thanks to all especially Ricardo for all your advice here.

Hi Ricardo - The problem, as you said, is that the Favorit you know may not be the version here in the uk. Which, I get the impression from a Cz guy living with my neighbour, is not exactly what they had back home. I remember you said that the Felicia imported to the Dominican Republic had a carburettor. Favorits only had a carb here until (according to vagcat - and that might not necessarily be UK) dec 1992, then some Bosch injection thingy, and at some stage a catalyst. I've not checked (don't have one) but I've always assumed Felicias here were all injection / catalyst. Would have to go online to find a partslist to check. Last time I looked 7zap was still alive. Problem is that most of the online sites now don't cover these older vehicles. Main dealer still has the details of the Favorit on his ETKA, but many / most parts are "no longer available". For me the biggest problem with a control valve on the water supply to the heater is that the control is somewhat slow to respond, meaning that it needs some experience of the car and a little anticipation to get it to work smoothly. At least with the Favorit the valve is isolated from the engine. On the early A series Austin engines things developed historically. 1950s Morris Minor - Water take off from the cylinder head via a manually operated tap. If you were cold you popped the bonnet (hood) and opened the tap to let water through the heater. With the Austin 1100 Luxury! The tap was replaced by a cable operated valve. On the head. Generally quite reliable (OEM ones anyway). Aftermarket parts sometimes worked in reverse, ie hot was cold. Problem was that with the control at its furtherest extent and the control wire taught a lot of tappet noise could be introduced into the cabin. Stuffing the valve inline in a heater hose solved that one on the Austin Maxi. The Metro went for the continuously fed heater and air flaps. But I suspect that after 30 years the foam seals on the flaps have all but disintegrated, bypassing the heater somewhat ... KISS. When the Moggie Minor came out in the late 1940s it had no heater. That was a later addition. Export only at first. Go figure. Prewar Sidevalve engine capable of over 40 MPG. Never had the privilege of owning one (want want want) so no personal experience. Too young to appreciate Dad's. Moggie got the Austin A series when Morris merged (was taken over by) Austin. I'm getting to sound obsessive. But there is such a rich vein of pioneering motoring history here in the uk which is in danger of being completely lost. I'm particularly interested in the "export" variations and local tweaks and redesigns done by overseas subsidiaries and manufacturing plants / companies. Anyways, where you live I would have thought that a heater was an unnecessary luxury! [Jealous - desperately looking forward to summer.]

Hi Ricardo. That's a new one on me. I don't doubt that there's a lot of dust on the outside of the matrix. Most oven cleaners are strongly caustic. What's the matrix made of? will they damage it? Anyway, on my Favorit, the cable from the top (temperature) slider in the car goes to a lever under a black plastic box connected internally to something my parts list refers to as a regulating valve. 2 plastic pipes out of that valve cover connect to the heater flow and return hoses. Do they do it differently where you are? At least the heater matrix is easy to get at. In my metro it's built in under the dash. A day's work to get it out. That has air flaps. At least you get instant warmth when you operate the slider. Warmth, not heat. Metro heaters are weak. The Favorit used to be toasty.

Sorry I've not reported back sooner. Life has been horrendous here recently - I've barely had time to breathe. Also I've been working locally recently (2 miles or so each way town driving most of the time) and not had the opportunity to give the car a decent trip. (Apart for the weekly trips to see my wife, who's staying looking after her 96 year old dad at the moment. That's a 120 mile round trip, but I wanted some confidence in the car before I went so far from home.) I've had a couple of longer work trips, and had it up to 50 / 60 mph, so this sunday I bit the bullet and took it up to see father-in law. Mixed country road motoring with some decent fast stretches. Coolant level seems constant, holds reservoir pressure after 15 mins or so, so I don't think coolant is going anywhere. There was a very tiny amount of mayo in the oil filler cap after the short runs, now all gone after the longer trips. Lovely day on saturday, so I had the plugs out after I got back from work. All looked ok, but gave 'em a clean before I put 'em back. All went well, so I think we can mark this one as "solved". Many thanks to everyone for your input. What would I have done differently? 1. I would have oiled the bolts rather than using the grease supplied. I think it would have been easier. 2. I changed the first hose down from the radiator because I had had a slight weep from the connection to the rad. I would have liked to change the other 2 underneath, but access is not easy. In ideal conditions (summer) I'd have refilled with plain water, and got the car onto ramps for access. I've had the hoses for a while, but never had time to do the change. (initially when I finished replacing the head I had a very small leak from the bottom of the radiator by the outlet pipe first evidenced by a tell tail trail of water vapour from the area. I let the radiator get nice and hot with the filler cap removed to prevent the system pressurising and sprayed the area with fresh water to clean it as far as I could. When it was dry I pressed in some Fernox LSX, a plumber's silicone sealant specifically designed as a jointing compound and leak sealer. The small weep seemed to be from one of the bottom cores of the rad, right in the corner by the outlet. I gave this several hours to cure, tightened down the filler cap and it seems to have cured the problem. I'll have to keep a close watch on this area. I then noticed a small weep from the outlet hose / radiator joint itself. Easily cured by nipping up the jubilee clip. Truly, Murphy is a sadist.) I'll leave the other hoses till the spring. 3. The heater matrix is quite blocked up, heater is very poor. Had been like this for a while. THAT IN ITSELF SHOULD HAVE RUNG ALARM BELLS. I would have liked to backflush it properly, clean out the control valve etc, but the weather and time made me decide to leave it all to the spring. I'll change the antifreeze again then. 4. With hindsight, now knowing the cause of the rotten gasket and head, changed the antifreeze every 2 years! 5. I think undoing and pulling back the manifolds first and removing the head without them was a good idea, even if getting the nuts back on the studs was a bit of a pain. It avoided a lot of messing about with the carb, and I've never tried disconnecting the exhaust from the manifold from above. (Always done it from below with the car on ramps - easy that way.) UNRELATED INFO. The front downpipe (My car is without catalyst) always seems to rust out at the weld with the flange which joins with the mid section. Aluminium paint rather than aluminising. The last unit I got off Skoda was wrapped in plastic bags and selotape. There was some selotape still stuck to the pipe when I fitted it. This has burnt off and taken the aluminising with it, leaving a rusty patch. Something else to look at in the spring. Worth checking that a new section is clean before fitting.

Good idea, Ricardo. Finally got the head back on on wednesday. Weather's been absolutely foul here, and trying to fit this in urgently when I can with other work. I actually very carefully laid the head directly on top of the block, inserted the bolts and checked that way. I carefully took a mm or so off the ends of a couple of the new bolts, and marked them with a felt tip pen. As I said, the new bolts were supplied with a sachet of "special grease" I decided to use this. I was a little bit worried that it seemed to contain a very small amount of copper powder, A flame test confirmed copper ... oh, well, I hope they know what they are doing. Only a very slight amount - the grease was almost transparent. I'll try to post a photo of the greased bolts later. (Not loaded with the stuff like copper ease.) I carefully removed the head and ran a bolt down each hole a couple of times to make sure the grease got to the bottom of the threads in the block, removed the bolt, cleaned and re greased it each time. Not over happy with the feel of the bolt as it went in the first time - the next time I do this (hopefully never again on this car) I think I'll stick with oil. Then cleaned the block again with with white spirit followed by acetone, cleaned the head again with acetone, fitted an new manifold gasket the (right way round - it's symmetrical), spread copperease on the manifold studs, fitted the head gasket to the block (checking it's the right way up) and laid the head on the gasket. Dropped in the push rods in the original order, fitted the rocker arm assembly with the tappet adjusters unscrewed and made sure that the ball on the adjusters was correctly in the top of the pushrods. Fitted the new bolts into the appropriate holes and did them up finger tight. Then tried to fit the rocker shaft bolts through into the head. ERROR. I should have fitted the small bolts first. There is a cut out in the rocker shaft to take these bolts, to locate the shaft. I had to undo the 2 long head bolts a few turns to enable me to turn the rocker shaft to get the small bolts through. Then torqued up the head bolts as per spec. Then fitted the alternator mount and torqued the the head nuts. HINDSIGHT - It would have been good to make a copy of the tightening sequence diagram and ticked off each bolt 3 times for each sequence - prevents errors if you get distracted during the process. That was it for wednesday - dusk. Thursday was mildish but damp. I removed the drain plug from the sump, a little more oil came out as expected. A bit of paper towel into the sump did not detect any coolant in the bottom of the sump. Replaced the plug and changed the oil filter. Adjusted the rocker clearances, replaced the rocker cover, refilled with cheap oil. Cleaned off corrosion from the alloy pipes on the inlet manifold, stat housing etc, checked and refitted the hoses. Filled with 33 % blue antifreeze. Replaced thermistor cable, spark plugs plugs and leads. Started to drizzle slightly. Decided to try to get the manifolds back. Carefully knocked out the little wooden block I had inserted to keep the exhaust pipe and manifold back - (it's possible to push the manifold back enough to remove the head without disconnecting from the exhaust), and fitted the washers and nuts. Next, the inlet manifold and carburettor. Problem - the bottom inlet manifold nuts are almost unreachable with the exhaust manifold in place. It's worse the other way round. In the end I fitted the top washers and nuts very loosely, got the washers on the studs with a pair of long nosed pliers, adjusted the heatshield slightly with a drift and hammer, lifted up the inlet manifold on the top studs and managed to get the nuts on and tightened with a slim 1/4 in drive socket and extension. The state of the heatshield and fixings meant removing it for easier assess was not a sensible option. Attempted to start the beast. By now it had been drizzling steadily, and despite some wd40, no go. Decided to go in and dry up / warm up, and leave it for the day. Had to go out a bit later, returned after dark. Noticed that I had left an interior light on - I've got a pair of 20 W halogen spots in the roof - so I thought I'd give it another go if only to check if I needed to put the battery on charge. Much to my surprise it started immediately. Let it warm up, lots of water vapour out the exhaust, expected of a cold wet day. Let it warm up. No bubbling out of the coolant filler. Let some of the water vapour out of the back condense on my hands and licked carefully. Slightly sweet, nowhere like as bad as before. Probably residual in exhaust. Waited till the thermostat opened, no overheating. Coolant level had dropped from max to min. and seemed stable. Switched off. Oil level slightly lower - expected as the oil filter and galleries filled. Started it up again later and warmed it up again. Levels stable. No more discernible taste out of the back end. Hopeful. Fitted the air cleaner today Took it out on the road for a few miles locally. Seems to run ok apart from the tappets. Would expect that as the pushrods etc settle in. Will treat it carefully and use for local trips for a while to make sure. Thanks everyone for all your advice! WARNING. Antifreeze (and brake fluid) is toxic. Do not ingest. It can also pass through the skin into the bloodstream. Having said that, it is VERY sweet, and not so long ago cheap wine from a european country which shall be nameless was found to be sweetened with antifreeze.

Hi Ricardo. From what I could see with a torch before, all the holes looked clean. This morning I stuck a camera down all the holes to try to get a better look. That was all I could do before the rain set in. Unfortunately, the kind of inspection camera I can afford that is thin enough to fit down a 11 mm hole is fixed focus and low resolution, but the image clearly shows that the thread does not go down to the bottom of the hole (none of them do) and that the hole is clear to the bottom. You can see where the end of my screwdriver scraped the bottom of the hole when I was using it with some industrial grade paper towel wrapped around it to clean out the wd40. It's also clear where the bolt has bottomed and polished the end if the thread as I ran it up and down with wd40 to clean the threads. I'm putting it down to manufacturing tolerances. I guess it was near the knuckle before I had the head skimmed. My memory of the machining limit was getting on for 2 mm before I took the head in - it's just about 1 mm now. Difficult to tell exactly because the notch is rough cast not machined. So maybe they took getting on for 1 mm off? I've decided to grind a mm off the end of the new bolt for that hole. Don't want to take much off because the thread in the block is not much more than 25 mm judging by the marks on the old bolts when they came out. I'm actually more concerned about the somewhat tatty threads I can see with the naked eye in nearly all the holes in the block, but there's nowt I can do about that. It's not nearly as bad as it seems in the photo - pixelation due to the appalling resolution - 640 x 480. The other thing I can do is **gently** lower the head onto the block without a gasket, fit the bolts finger tight and see if any actually bottom out then.

Thanks for that, Ricardo. Just seen your post. Nice to have my somewhat uneducated guesses confirmed. My main worry was no.2. I've checked my digital "vernier" against another one and a real mechanical one, and checked the bolt protrusion measurements. Coming up with the same figures. I've had a good look down the holes in the block. The holes go rather deeper than the threads. The threads in the holes are clean, but are a tad rough looking. I suspect they've seen better days. That was my guess yesterday, and trying to tighten down a bottomed bolt would be bad news. Problem is, I don't know how much the guy took off the head. At a guess no more than a mm - probably a bit less. There's still about 1 mm left on the maximum machining notch. I've got a nasty feeling the thing might have overheated in its early days and the head skimmed before. Someone's put an override switch on the radiator fan - I've certainly never had overheating problems, although it's possible the first owner was panicked by the temperature gauge rising very slightly before the fan kicks in. Have you any idea how deep that max machining notch would be on an original head? I had already decided to grind back the ends of the new bolts to the size of the Skoda part, and gently cone off the ends to match. I'm coming to the view that it would probably be safe / safer to take another mm off the bolt for no.2 to allow for the machining. Alternatively I could add an extra washer under the thick bolt washer. The only ones I have available are ordinary 1.2 X 10 mm x 25 mm penny washers - trivial to open them out to 11 mm. The original hardened washer would be up against the bolt head, and I presume the air cleaner bracket is nothing special. The other one I would need to check is the middle bolt on the other side - no.1 - the one recessed into the head under the rockers. The only way I could see of getting a better measurement for that row was to carefully put a bit of masking tape round the bottomed bolt in the head and measuring with callipers after I took the bolt out again. Got to be more accurate than trying to look at a ruler. Or engineer's callipers and measure them if I've got some suitable. Very many thanks for all your advice Good not to be doing all this on my own. Jxx

Foul day here today in spite of what Mystic Met promised. Forecast changes with the hour. Mild but bouts of very fine west country type rain. However - I took one of the old bolts, cut a couple of slots in the thread with a hacksaw, brushed it out well to remove burs and had another at the threads in the block. Cleaned the wd40 out well with a bits of paper towel wrapped round a long thin screwdriver. (Compressor's a big heavy brute in the shed at the bottom of the garden, didn't want to lug it out if I could help it.) Very little further muck came out and I can see the bottoms of the holes are clean. Had a look at the new bolts, threads all good - no nasty damage. Gave them all a good clean with a stiff brass wire brush - the long and short ones had a bit of spotting corrosion and felt a bit rough. Decided to run them down dry into the threads finger tight to the bottom to make sure all ok. I ran a straight edge over the block. As far as I can tell it's true. The liners seem pretty well level with the block rather than protruding slightly, but there's nothing I can do about that. Measured the protruding lengths with the new bolts out of curiosity to see how much room there was. I used a digital vernier which I have always found very accurate and reliable up to now, but I've not used it needing high accuracy over an inch or so. I'll check it against a "real" vernier calliper I inherited from my father tomorrow. Measured the head - 97.6 mm after skimming. Allowing for 4 mm for the air cleaner bracket, 4.2 mm for the washers and 23.9 mm for the rocker shaft clamps and I did a few quick calculations. Head gasket is 1.5 mm new. No idea what it is compressed - 1 mm?? Had some difficulty getting in to measure the protrusion of bolt sticking out of the holes which take the bolts under the rocker shaft, I'll try again tomorrow using the depth gauge bit of the callipers. So far I've only got rough ruler measurements for them. This is what I get, with a finger tight untensioned bolt: Short bolt (no.10) (New bolt 0.5 mm longer than old Skoda bolt) Protrusion 100 mm. Head + washer + gasket @1 mm = 102.8 mm --- Gives 2.8 mm to torque down --- tight. Medium bolt. (new bolt 0.8 mm longer than new Skoda bolt) Manifold side: No.6 - Protrusion 104.5mm Head + air cleaner bracket + washer +gasket = 106.8 mm --- gives 2.3 mm to torque down --- tighter. No.2 - Protrusion 106 mm --- gives only 0.8 mm. No.3 - Protrusion 103 mm --- gives 3.8 mm. No.7 - Protrusion 100 mm --- Head + washer + gasket = 102.8mm --- gives 2.8 to torque down. For the medium bolts under the rocker shaft I only have a rough ruler measurement at the moment, but I suspect that the middle bolt, No.1, which for some reason is set about 4 mm down in the head will be tight. For the long bolts I get : No. 9 - 4.5 mm to torque down, No. 8 - 7.5 mm to torque down. Now, I will check this all again and check the accuracy of the callipers, but these figures don't look right. Or I've made some silly error somewhere. I've noticed with the medium bolts that not only are they 0.8 mm longer than the original, the threads are rolled all the way to the end of the bolt. The Skoda ones have the ends nicely rounded. I'd be very surprised if the tappings in the block have no run out. If - and it may be a big if - my measurements prove correct I'm tempted to grind the ends of the bolts down to at least OEM sizes, and round the ends of the medium bolts slightly. I'm pretty sure that the threads in the block are clean , but I'll check that as well. In the meantime I've got a few questions: 1. How much spare depth is considered normal / safe for the threads in the holes in the block? Obviously I need as much used thread as possible for strength. 2. How much should I expect the head gasket to compress when the head is torqued down? 3. How much do the bolts stretch under tension - after all they are effectively a mighty strong spring. 4. I've measured my head at 97.6 mm. Does anyone know the height of a stock Favorit head? The number 0881 is stamped on the head, top centre, manifold side. I don't think the machine shop took that much off, there's still some way to go to the marker notch - difficult to measure as it's rough cast, not machined. Thanks everyone for your patience - especially Ricardo. Jxx.

The story so far: The BGA bolts arrived on wednesday. Correct ones this time. They all have the correct 10.9 marking, also 5 stars. Purely out of interest, does anyone know if that is another grading code or a manufacturer's code? The bolts look a lot nicer than the wrong Victor Reinz ones I was supplied earlier. Better packed and far fewer nicks in the threads, better than Skoda OEM for that. I'll give them a careful look over, carefully relieve any significant nicks and test fit them into all the holes first. some seem a mm or so longer than the originals - I'll screw them in by hand until they bottom out, measure protrusion from the block and double check things are ok especially as the head has been skimmed. BGA supplied a sachet of "Special grease for cylinder head bolts". I'm a little cagey about this. If I use it I presume it's essential to get it to the bottom of the threads, so a very light application with a toothbrush? Or possibly a thicker smear right down the threads but not all the way round the bolt? No instructions supplied. I'm inclined to ignore the grease and just lightly oil as normal. Bad news with the seals - Correct BGA part no bag supplied (another supplier), but had a very small seal sized tear in it Seals were smaller than 8 mm - loose to the shank of a 6 mm drill, just smaller than a 6.5 mm drill shank - so I guess for a 7 mm valve. Will have strong words with that ebay supplier shortly. I made Ricardo's valve spring tool and popped one of the exhaust valves. The old seal still seemed to have some tension on the valve left, and did not seem to be burnt at all. I've decided to leave well alone and risk it. I have to get this job finished. The weather here has been foul all this week but Mystic Met were forecasting mild and dryish over the weekend. Mind you, an hour is a long time in weather forecasting in the UK these days, and they're now suggesting rain on sunday. If it looks reasonable I'll have a bash.

Dear Ricardo Very many thanks for that - looks far easier to handle than the "proper" tool. It's roughly what I remembered. I'm sure I can knock something like that up. I like the idea of the packing washers to keep the spring down. I was mulling over the idea of a second bolt and a small block to protect the top of the head, but simplicity is best! (There's another reason to pop the valves. I've noticed that there is a small wear ridge on the top of a few of them, which will make setting tappet gaps awkward. It'd be nice to hone them flat.) I guess from the stat housing that that is a Felicia. I noticed from the pictures of the nut and bolt locations you posted that the M8 nuts were stiffnuts. My favorit has flat washers, split shakeproof washers and ordinary nuts. I wonder why Skoda changed? Just checked the 2 Favorit partslists I've managed to grab off the net - plain nut 8.87 - 01.94, hex nut, self locking, N0111849 02-94 on. No mention of any split washers except on the bolt for the alternator bracket. I did notice when I removed them that they seemed quite easy to remove. The other thing I noticed on my head was that the central head bolt fixing hole inside the tappet cover area was lower than the others. I see your Felicia head is the same. ?? Just had an email from the bolt supplier. Dispatch confirmed for tomorrow. I had to get the seals from someone else, projected delivery 6 - 9 jan. I really DO NOT want to do that job later with the head on. I'll wait unless I have trouble with the Metro. (I do have to have a working car at the moment for work and with my wife up in Suffolk 60 miles away with her dad. Also, I'd like to get that head off the stool in the kitchen where it's living at the mo. Perhaps its a good job my wife's away at the moment .... Jxx Regarding draining the block ... the drain point in the block was really tight - I presumed it was seized in so quit while I was ahead and drained from the bottom hose. I had a small weep from there anyway, so I'll change the hose when I refill. I couldn't be bothered at the time to crawl under and remove the drain plug in the bottom pipe. Looking at your pics,the other thing I'll have to do sometime is replace the vapour lock device on the pierburg. The plastic is beginning to craze slightly. That's a leak I DON'T want to have. At the mo I haven't been able to source one anywhere - strange because I presume they were used on a lot of cars. I'll try again in the spring. If I get no luck I'll fabricate something out of copper pipe. Could be cheaper and quicker in the end.

Ricardo Thanks for the info re BGA are ok. Have just ordered a set of bolts off a company on fleabay for £35. They've got a 100% rating, and wanted me to confirm reg no / engine no, so they seem to be quite professional. I gave the top of the block and liners another spray with WD40 yesterday. It's been cold and foggy here and everything's wet under the bonnet. I don't want any rust on the liners, especially the tops. I'll sort out degreasing when I fit the head. Also ordered a set of BGA seals from someone else. I'll fit them if they arrive in time. My spring compressor is too small for the favorit head so I'll either have to buy a bigger one of make up something like the "spanner" one you posted a picture of. I've had a search on the forum I can't easily find it again - got a link? General question - If this has to be done with the head in situ at any time the rockers will obviously have to come off, that means 2 head bolts out. I presume it is necessary to release all the others in sequence at the same time?

The sorry tale so far: 1. The obstructed water holes in the head. This one worried me a bit. I didn't like the look of the obstructions, and Ricardo confirmed that. But how to safely open them out? I haven’t got a vertical drill or mill, so I had to do it freehand. My concern was that one slip and the nicely honed head face would be ruined. I decided to use a conical rotary file / rasp in a portable drill. Firstly I thoroughly cleaned the surface of the head. Then I lightly held the new gasket (correct way up) onto the gasket surface and marked the area needing removal with a felt tip pen. I clamped the conical bit into the chuck of a lightweight battery powered drill / screwdriver and wacked the torque right down so that if the bit jammed it would not cam out. I dipped the rasp regularly in white spirit (very similar to mineral spirits in the US I believe Ricardo) to prevent the ally picking up into the teeth of the rasp, and patience. Lastly I blew out the head with an air line, including the oilway. Incredible amount of swarf in the head 2. The Bolts. When I collected the 2 filters yesterday that I had ordered two filters I had ordered online from GSF Car Parts just down the road from me (just after they closed for the holiday - GRRR) I enquired whether they did head bolts. No, but they could get them for me by 11 am today. They arrived about an hour late. Victor Reinz, 14-32167-01 rattling about loose in a sealed box. I opened them to check, didn't quite like the look of them, and the found I had 4 long bolts and 5 medium bolts. Sizes looked ok, although I didn't check the threads. I took a refund, which hurt, as GSF only charged me £18 for them including the vat. The VH website is pretty unhelpful, but fleabay suggests that contents were correct, but the bolts were for a Fabia. Perhaps it's as well as it appears they have a reputation for supplying BENT bolts. Anyone any experience of VR? I have sourced an alternative from ebay - BGA BK6362 at £35. 3. The seals. Ricardo will probably kill me for saying this, but I'm desperate to get this thing back on the road - I need it for work - and when I thought I could get a set of bolts sharpish I had decided to live with the old seals. The guy who did the head reckoned there were ok, and I was prepared to trust him. It's not as though they would cause a catastrophic failure. I had sourced on fleabay a set for £12.44! BGA VK6338. 8mm seals as per my head. There appear to be 7 mm options around as well so I checked the manufacturer's part number. 4. Regarding British Gaskets Group, aka BGA, website seems professional, good deal of technical info, anyone had any experience of their parts? 5. The old bolts. The old ones were marked 10k. The 2 I bought new from Skoda were marked 10.9 I've done some research and it seems that 10k is the old DIN standard and 10.9 is the new IEC standard. I haven't got access to either standard but I understand that they are effectively equivalent. I've tried to get a better idea of the stretch. I've decided to try to measure the top 40 mm of the thread of bolts which has stretched with vernier calipers.. The bottom 27 mm or that screws into the head seems unstretched. so in The only bolt I've measured is the pitted one Recardo posted the photo of, which seems to be one of the worst. It's quite difficult to get an accurate measurement as the points of my callipers don't quite get to the bottom of the threads, but taking several measurements, the stretch over 40 mm seems to be about 0.3 mm. Out of interest I want to get some comparison between bolts. I presume that there will be some manufacturing tolerance between individual bolts and that comparison of overall length would not be useful, but I will do it anyway as measurement will be easy with a feeler gauge. It's a shame I did not do this when I did the head last time, but I was completely ignorant of torque to yield then. I've reused these bolts once, so assuming OEM and noone else has had the head off, that will be twice so far. I say that because, although I'm pretty sure my father in law has had no trouble, someone's put a radiator fan thermostat override switch switch under the dash, and I've always wondered why. I've never had problems with overheating. The main reason is that I want to get the best record I can of what has gone on, and to get a fuller understanding of the implications of angle tightening bolts, but in the back of my mind is a mean little thought that if I have further trouble sourcing a decent set of bolts, just how risky would it be to use this set again. Given that there is differential expansion between the block/head and the bolts, the greatest tension would be with the engine hot. The exact coefficients of expansion would depend on the actual alloys of steel and aluminium (where's a metallurgist when you need one?) but If my arithmetic is right, using ballpark figures I get something like 10 thou between 32 deg F and 212 deg F (I took my coefficients from a US website) ie about .25mm between 0 deg C and 100 deg C. (It's been frosty and foggy here for the last couple of days.) I'll need to check the figures. All this suggests to me that even if a bolt doesn't snap when it's tightened it just might when the engine gets hot. Does this alloy get significantly more brittle when the temperature drops I wonder? Wondering because I have no idea what the temperatures here are going to do over the next week or so. Mind you, I'm likely to wait until it's at least 5 deg before I try anything just for my own comfort. At the mo the engine is wringing wet with condensation. Glad I sprayed the block and liners with WD40 after cleaning them. I presume that the factory worked at a relatively decent temperature, but Czechoslovakia gets horribly cold in winter - -30 deg C being normal. I wonder if there's anything about this in the Cz manuals? This may all sound daft, but the more I dig into this the more I want to know, just to satisfy my curiosity. Apart from a job hopefully well done a lot of the satisfaction I get from a something like this is putting together knowledge to gain understanding. It always seems to come in useful somewhere else. Incidentally BGA's technical bulletins give a couple of scary pictures of stretched headbolts: http://bgautomotive.co.uk/bulletin-sealing-range/ and look at TB-0707-092013 (PDF). 6. Oil. I've checked my Skoda Owner's Handbook. Skoda say 20 / 50 is good down to -10 deg C. It rarely gets that low in this part of the uk, even at night. I know far too little about oil. The thought about lubricating the bolts with something with EP properties rather than standard engine oil was mainly fishing for advice. I know a little about how EP additives work in gearboxes, but that's acting chemically steel upon steel. The effect seems not to be instantaneous, so probably no advantage steel bolt screwed once into ally. Any disadvantages? Don't know. Standard engine oil it will be. I know that there seem to be some special bolt lubricants out there - anyone any experience? Read somewhere in the last couple of days a suggestion to spray the bolt and head with white lithium grease. I can see a possible advantage in using a dab of lithium grease under the bolt head / washer, but I'd be very hesitant indeed to grease the thread of a bolt going into a blind hole. Thanks everyone for your interest and advice. Jxx

Hi, Ricardo. Yes, I agree, compressed air is a better idea. Just have to lug the compressor across the garden from the shed and longish 3 /8 hose out through the sideway (2nd shed) along the side of the house. I was thinking to get away with industrial type paper towel wrapped around a small screwdriver to get out the wd40, some white spirit, repeat with paper towel. Re oil. The Metro, and Mini from which a whole series of cars are derived, is a bit unusual. The MIni was in production in various form till 2000 The mini came out in 1959. It used the Austin A series engine, dating back to the 1940s, which was designed as a, then bang up to date, 4 cylinder overhead valve unit, in line driving through the back wheels. Alec Issigonis at Austin (then BMC and merged with Morris Motors) designed a very compact 4 seater family car with the engine turned sideways and the gearbox and diff UNDER the engine, effectively in the sump and sharing the engine oil. Drive came off the crankshaft onto a primary gear running free on the end of the crankshaft behind the flywheel, the splines of the primary gear taking the clutch, which was also inboard of the flywheel. The pressure plate was on the back of the flywheel. commented through the flywheel by 3 pairs of laminated spring steel driving straps. When the the clutch was engaged the primary rear was locked to the crankshaft. and drove the gearbox first motion shaft via an idler gear. The gearbox, largely taken from the Morris Minor etc, sat in the same oil as the engine used, ie in lieu of the sump. One great advantage is that all you need to do to change the clutch is jack up the power unit a tad, remove the battery and tray, whip off the clutch cover, pull the flywheel and there's the clutch. No need to remove the gearbox. I can send you a piccy of a metro and the power unit if you're interested. The problem is the gearbox. Most engine oils cannot stand the shearing action of the gearbox and diff teeth and bearings. The result is that a modern oil, is totally unsuitable for this rather special use, and can come out like diesel after as little as 1000 miles. The engine was also designed for 20/50 or similar. Millers have come up with an ENGINE oil, 20/50 grade, which also meets gearbox GL4 spec. For that particular machine it's really good. I've used it for a number of years now. What I was wondering was, in view if the probably grotty finish to the threads in the block, - and the bolts if they did get reused - would the extreme pressure properties of a smear of this 20 / 50 be an advantage or not? Ignorance asking those who know better. Incidentally, one of the leading companies supplying the mini fraternity, including the racers, here in the uk is Minispares. They have had their own brand 20 / 50 mini oil blended by another independent. I bought a couple of gallons, and decided to try it first in the Skoda. Owner's handbook says I can use 20 / 50. Happy with it for the last year. I have had another look at the bolts. Unfortunately I was offline when I composed that post, was unaware of your response before I posted. Sorry. I've got a picture of the reworked head and the pitted bolt. I'll see if they're ok and send them to you. I take your point on the seals. I had to make a spot decision when I took the head in and I was hoping to get this job done and dusted over Christmas. We've had incredibly mild weather, and it's set to get colder ... If I've got to source a set of bolts I'll look at finding a set of seals. One of the things that persuaded me to take a chance was that the seals are now obsolete from Skoda. I don't want a set of pattern part rubbish that is going to be worse than I've got! I'd also have to make that the supplier had the right size. I gather there are 2 sizes, and the only difference in the Skoda numbers is a suffix letter! Frankly, the same concerns with the bolts. Before I buy I'll post back here with the options for good advice. TBH, I'm more worried about the quality of the bolts than the seals. They were fine before this all happened, and provided the guy hasn't damaged them I'm hopeful. You posted a picture somewhere on the forum (can't remember exactly where now) that seemed to show changing seals without removing the head. Nasty job. I've done it on a Nissan Sunny. YUK - Hated that car. Can't remember the Sunny, but for the Skoda that would surely entail removing 2 of the head bolts. Would I need to release the others? I do like the improvised valve spring tool. For the Sunny ISTR I cobbled something together with a ground up case opener. Did the job, but I decided that if ever I had to do that again I'd need to design a mk 2. Thanks for all your help. Jxx

OK - I've just had a closer look at those bolts. 1. They have all got the same marking stamped into the head. | 10k | and L1 on opposite sides. So I guess they are possibly all from the same batch / spec. 2. The 2 - long and medium - bolts I got from Skoda the other day are marked OE FTF and 10.9 on opposite sides. 3. The first 1 inch or so appears to be unstretched, which from the slight marks left after the scrubbing appears to be the extent of the threads actually mating with the threads in the block. Conformed by the pitting marks on 1 bolt. 4. This is a bit weird. the 2 long bolts appear unstretched. 5. In tightening order (how better to refer to them?) numbers 2 and 3 are worst - includes pitted one no 3. These, over the remaining 40 mm or so seem to be as far as I can see visually about 1/4 turn, ie approx 0.37 mm over 40 mm. 6. The rest, including the short bolt, have considerably less stretch. 7. As far as I can see only 1 bolt has any significant pitting. 8. I was surprised how many small flats /dents there were on the threads of the bolts - looks like impact damage. The 2 new ones have the same minor damage. They were supplied fairly well wrapped in polythene with Skoda part numbers stuck on. Naughty. I'll try to get a passable photo of the pitting. Re the head,taking a closer look at the limit notch in one long edge of the block I think they may have taken a bit more that 12 thou off. Certainly a bit more than 0.5 mm. Jxx.

OK - the story so far. I took the head into Star Engineers on thursday morning for assessment. We batted about the feasibility of skimming the head. The fire ring area of no 3 was somewhat eroded. (Personally, given the state of the gasket, I think I would have got away with just a new gasket - for an indeterminate number of weeks. Possibly. Ie a get-you-home bodge.) It would have been necessary to take at least 2 mm of the head to clean up that eroded area, and there were deeper pits. We agreed that taking 2mm might not be good enough, and he suggested welding the head up. (I like a challenge - done it loads of times before on these heads.) I asked him how - he said oxy and an aluminium filler rod. He did it the same day, and I picked it up on friday morning. Not bad just before Christmas! I had to go on to suffolk on thursday, so I didn't see it done, and so, sorry no photos. Painful, though - £50 had become £120. He had to pop the valves and seals and replace afterwards. He reckoned one of the valves in no3 was a bit pitted, but lapped in ok. He didn't have any new seals, but reckoned they were ok and popped back easily enough. I'll have to trust him on that. He's cleaned up the head nicely, including the ports. My first comment on seeing the job was (You haven't had to take much off!) He said about 12 thou. The head's not perfect, but all the vital areas are clean. I'll try to get a photo up shortly. I spent the rest of my free time on friday trying to clean out the bits of rotten gasket around the cylinder liners and cleaning the tops of the pistons. This was a problem. I needed to be very careful not to disturb the liners - a bit of that muck under one of them and its game over. My longest long nosed pliers was too fat to easily get in there and I didn't have a suitable pair if tweezers. In the end I went down a completely different route. I decided to try vacuuming it out.I've got a home made adaptor with a pcl connector to fit a radiator hose to enable me to pressure test radiators. (No, not at 100psi!). A few layers of insulating tape and it fitted into the end of the cleaner hose. A bit of flexible silicone hose over the pcl connector and it worked a treat. Initially as a pickup tool for the larger bits, then sucking out the smaller bits. A lot of it jammed in the silicone tube or up against the pcl connector, some of it in the connector itself, which made the job slower, but kept most of the crud out of the vacuum itself. I could probably have made a special adaptor with a larger tube, but that would have taken even longer. I used a commercial Numatic George wet / dry / carpet shampooing device (THIS BIT'S IMPORTANT) with a bypass motor. Don't do this with a normal domestic vac, folks! In fact I used the George in "Dry" mode as there wasn't that much muck and Henry/George use plastic non woven bags. I really did not want to clean all that muck out of the tub... The vacuum also came in handy (without adaptor) sucking up the carbon as I carefully cleaned off the cylinders. I used a bit of clean cut copper pipe to gently scrape off the carbon, as I had used 2 bits to space out the bolts and washers I used to temporally clamp down the liners.Bores look excellent. Lots of wd40 sprayed in there at the mo. The good news is that the tops of the liners look good - the original machining is still clearly visible. Gave the head bolts a good scrub today. All looked ok, apart for the one I had reused to clamp the liners. That one had the threads quite pitted. I've got one of each of the 2 longer bolts (smallest now unavailable from Skoda) I'm a little reluctant to replace just one bolt - I know Skoda supply them as singles, but will this be ok? There is something potentially nastier. I noticed that the thread, compared to the new bolts, shows that the bolt has stretched. Seems to be about half a thread top to bottom of the thread, mainly the thread towards the top of the bolt. This led me to do a quick check of the other bolts. Strange, the longest bolts seem ok, it's the mid length ones which are stretched. The shortest less so. How nasty is this? Ricardo? I have run a new bolt repeatedly down into the head with wd40 until I coudd "bottom" all the threads with fingers alone. Some of the threads had a lot of muck in them. The worst 2 were the ones at the front of the engine. One of these was the one I had most trouble removing (no 9 in the torque sequence). That one bottomed out I would guess about 5 mm earlier than the rest of the row, with a a few threads still showing. I presume that the bolts do not go that near the bottom of the holes, and this hole was tapped short at the factory. Am I right? The other strange thing is that both these 2 front bolt holes Seem to be a much snugger fit for the bolt. The others were much looser. In every case the "Stretched" bolt hand threaded down to the bottom by hand equally easily. There's a lot of wd40 down the holes at the mo. I'll leave it there tonight, run a bolt down again tomorrow and mop it carefully out with a bit of paper towel wrapped round a screwdriver. I'l then coat the bolts with a good engine oil and run them couple of times before I degrease the block and fit the gasket. Re oil - I'm wondering - The oil I use in my Austin Metro is a special 20 /50 engine oil, made by Millers. Because I have the gearbox in the sump, it meets gearbox GL4 spec as well as the necessary engine specs. A good idea or a definite no no?? In short, do I need to source new bolts? If so, whose, bearing in mind that the shortest bolt is unavailable from Skoda, and the others are £8.00 EACH? Jxx.

"With that amount of carbon on the chambers and piston crowns, I would think that it would be worth dropping the valves to decoke the ports and valve heads." Agreed, but she has been running ok until this happened, using very little oil (leaking a bit from the bottom end, probably sump gasket, but I have to work in the road and don't fancy removing the sump with a lot of dust and grit blowing around, so I'll live with it) so in view of the general condition of the car I reckon I'll be lucky to get another couple of years or so, so I'll probably leave em as is. I've been on the phone to a machine shop my local (Chelmsford) Skoda agent recommends, and I'm bringing it in for him to have a look at tomorrow morning. on the phone he reckons he cam skim the head with the valves in. If it'll take a skim he can do it almost immediately. He mentioned welding out the pitting, but that'd be in the new year. Only got wet finger in the air guestimate on costings over the phone so far. Will know more tomorrow. I've taken off the 'stat housing and rockers and cleaned up the filth on the head, and cleaned out the combustion chambers. They've come up nice and clean. Not had a chance to take photos. From what I could see with a decent engineering ruler there's precious little distortion if any. Which is what I'd have expected given that it hasn't overheated. In view of the need to skim a more accurate check is academic. "Probably have a better head than that at work I can as gaffer how much he would want for one if you are stuck.postage wouldn't be that bad at a guess" Would be interested to know the price, and whether I'd need to have that one machined, in case mine is beyond repair. I'm still hoping for some change out of £100. Can't afford a new bus at the mo, so keeping this one on the road is the only reasonable option. Besides, I've got somewhat fond of the old brute. Simplicity and reliability, and a nice driving position (after I raised the seat a couple of inches) mean a lot. The old head gasket was supplied by Richard at Writtle - genuine Skoda part. Not sure when I did this last - must be up to 8 years ago. At that time the original gasket was like the one I've pulled out. At the time I didn't have broadband internet access, nor access to the sort of knowledge and advice I am getting here. My experience over the years has been with the Austin A series cast iron engine and I had never seen a head gasket rust out like that before. I just assumed that was normal old age on a 1990 Skoda. I had no idea rotten antifreeze was to blame. Strangely enough, it's still listed and I've got a genuine replacement. (Don't remind vw.) The head was quite pitted then, but I thought I could probably just get away with it. History shows that I did for a number of years. At the time I never thought I'd be keeping the car for as long as I have. Unfortunately I don't think I took any pictures at the time for comparison. I suppose that pitting would have allowed coolant to seep into the low spots and stay there, where it would quickly deteriorate and continue to have its wicked way. Regular antifreeze changes would have surely helped, but I suspect not eliminated the problem.

Wonderful! It looks new? I'll never get my head back to that state. The best I can hope for is for plenty of decent surface around the fire rings and other essential areas. I'm sure that there'll still be a few pits here and there. I phoned my local Skoda dealer in Chelmsford (about 25 miles away) - he couldn't give me an idea on how far it was possible to push the machining, but gave me the name and phone number of the engine shop he uses in Chelmsford. Richard's a good guy, very knowledgeable and helpful. I'll give the machine shop a ring. It's not so far as it seems - I pass through Chelmsford about once a week visiting my wife - she's staying with her 96 year old dad at the moment, and I pass this engineering shop every time, although I've never noticed it was there. If I get a chance I'll measure the combustion chamber capacity before I take the head in to compare with when I get it back. The car was running well, not burning significant oil, so I'm wondering if it's worth doing anything to the valves. (Maybe they can machine the head with the valves in place? I'll obviously have to take out the rockers. It's my work bus, and gets a lot of cosmetic abuse. I know it's not got long left, but I need to keep it for a year or 2. (Cost and the need to find a suitable replacement) That brute's got lots of room and guts and I find it very comfortable. Was my father in law's. He gave it to me when he gave up driving some 14 years ago. I'll be very sorry when I have to finally bid it goodbye. Question - I'm intrigued -What are those figures written on the head in the photo?

Thanks for that info Ricardo - gives one some confidence knowing a safe "maximum" to start with. 100 NM wouldn't touch it. I increased torque to 125 NM and after several 'breaks of the torque wrench they started to move. Did the quarter turn as you suggested. Tapping the top of the bolts sharply a few times seemed to help. Funnily enough the worst 2 bolts were 5 and 9 at the front of the engine - the blow was compression / water in no 3. No 6 appeared to be held at the top - no "spring" in the bolt as torque increased. I got my torch and carefully warmed up the head of the bolt (didn't want to risk the temper of the head of the bolt), applied Laco (I've found it generally more effective than WD40) and tapped the bolt head smartly a few times, trying also to tap sideways. Repeated 2 or 3 times, and the brute shifted. re tightened and loosened a few times and it came out clean. The worst was no 9. A lot of tapping and a small torque increase and it shifted. In short brute force applied as gently as possible. No bolts were harmed in ... I nearly gave up on no 9 and went out to get an impact "hex socket" to try my air impact wrench to try to shock it loose, My main concern was that might shatter the socket head on the bolt. Do you think this would have been likely? Your comments re neglect and biting bullets are accepted - but the sight of the remains of the head and motheaten head were far more sobering. At least I've learned what causes it and how to avoid the problem in future. Re head - from what I can see with a straight edge there is precious little distortion, which I would expect, as there's been no overheating, but in view of the pitting I can't be bothered to actually try to measure it. The question is - just how far is it going to be possible to skim that head? I'll need at least 1 mm - probably double that, and it'll still leave some isolated pits. Will the tappet adjustment cope with that? I presume the pistons come up to the top of the bores. What about the valve lift? I only have the Favorit Haynes BOL and it doesn't give that kind of useful info. I'm assuming of course that the head hasn't been skimmed before. There is a notch in the edge of the head casting down the manifold side. Is this some kind of recommended maximum skim marker? It'll obviously affect the CR - I'll probably have to back off the timing to prevent knock. The good news is that there didn't appear to be any water in the oil when I drained it, so I guess the rest of the engine will be ok, but I didn't quite like the look of it when I poured it into a clean oil can. Sizzle test was spectacular. So a couple of new filters and 200 miles or so on cheapo oil it'll have to be. I've taken some pics and I'll post them as soon as I can. I've got some couple of people chasing me for work and I've got a quite complicated estimate to do asap. The joys of being self employed.

Thanks Ricardo - good to know the "safe" limit! The head was a little tatty last time but I thought I'd just about get away with it. It's been ok for several years, I forget how long, but when I asked my 21 year old daughter if she remembered it and how old she was at the time she guessed between 10 to 13. I'll have to go back through my paperwork for the dealer invoice for the gasket to find out. Have done a few tens of thousands of miles in that time, both short local runs and longer hight speed ones. To my increasing shame I hadn't changed the coolant in that time. I hadn't realised that was what had rotted the original gasket in the first place. So I'm hopeful that the main problem is a rotten gasket and that the head is recoverable, probably with refacing this time. It's on forums like this that one learns the errors of one's ways. That video was an interesting technique - but I fear of limited use for bolts deep inside the head? I guess if the outside ones are removed the inner ones will get tighter? Get them free one at a time and tighten down again to reduce the risk of casting distortion? Any thoughts on using - carefully - bit at a time - forward and reverse - the air hammer? I know it seems brutal in this instance, and I'm somewhat reluctant to try, mainly because the thread into the block is quite long, but I know I've used those things to shift fixings that I'm sure I'd have sheared off otherwise - and saved my knuckles. If I can get the bolt up a couple of threads or so I guess I *might* be able to run some penetrating fluid down the bolt and work it out. Laco penetrating fluid or similar. Any thoughts on the internet's favourite ATF and acetone? The acetone (low surface tension) is supposed to take the ATF (EP properties I presume) down the threads with it. Been meaning to get some ATF and try it on something a little less critical where I can do some sort of a comparison. I do know Laco is good stuff, If I can still get it. MSDS does not say a great deal about it, petroleum distillate, and mentions kerosene / jet fuel. Seems to have a characteristic odour somewhat different to kerosine. Possibly similar what we in the UK would call white spirit with some light oil added. Yup, £5.39 including postage from ebay UK. Using it on the manifold studs, I'd have liked to see more actual lubricant penetration I must admit, but they came free quite easily. hanks again for your help

Oops! Should have made it clear - car is a Favorit, 1.3 registered 1990

Head gasket has failed coolant into no 3 cylinder - no 3 plug wet with coolant and coolant thru exhaust, coolant blowing out of header. No evidence of coolant in the oil. Have been reading threads on here re Felicias and have learned a LOT. THANKS FOLKS, ESPECIALLY RICARDO. I now know that I should have been more careful to change the coolant regularly. I did this job a number of years ago and he gasket then was totally rotten. Just got away with the head. Have got genuine head and manifold gaskets and have removed the manifolds and drained coolant. Manifolds are ok. Query is regarding removal of head bolts. They seem incredibly tight. with a standard ratchet wrench I can't move any of them. A few seemed to "click" and move a couple of degrees, almost as if the head of the bolt had rotated very slightly, but then nothing. But I might be mistaken. I presume the bolts are sticking in the head. When I did the head last time I would have run the bolts up and down as necessary to ensure they were free and oiled them. I remember they were tight last time but I don't remember them being this tight. (I seem to recall that there was one bolt in particular that I struggled with.) Just how much torque is it safe to apply to these bolts without shearing them? I've got a couple of torque wrenches, one goes up to 150 lbft / 210 NM. Would it be a good idea to to give all the bolts a few smart taps on the heads first, or would an air impact wrench be a good idea, undoing say 1/4 turn or so all round first? I'd hate to break a bolt off, especially near or below the level of the block. Especially as I gather that the shortest bolt is now obsolete from Skoda. I'll worry about the condition of the head when I get it off. May have to have it skimmed.