Mrr4nd411

Agreed, under normal circumstances I wouldn’t put steel seal into any engine but after ringing round a few garages and a very specialist who all refused to do a HG (the specialist actually quoted me for a new long block with a total price of £5200) I felt it was a do or die situation for my engine, as it turns out the leak tester showed the HG leaking pre steel seal and not leaking after (still wouldn’t advise anyone using steel seal), there may well be a blockage somewhere though, unsure if it was blocked before or not though. I have a plan for my parts and a spending limit, I will update if all goes to plan with a total cost breakdown in the future. If not I will probably break the car as it’s in very good condition

I haven’t seen a tester that uses the coolant as a sample, I have used the tester that uses a liquid that reacts to co2 attached to the top of the expansion tank, but applying boost while testing is challenging, too sudden accel/decel while having it attached either blows the liquid out the tester or sucks it into the expansion tank, plus the bonnet needs to be open and I don’t have anywhere to do it that isn’t public, if you have an example of the tester can you link it? thanks!

Yes, I think this will be a last ditch effort, but your right, it’s worth trying before going to the effort of removing everything, when I have some time I’ll have a go!

Hey @bigjohn I have replaced the mechanical water pump as I had read it was a common failure point, I haven’t touched the aux pump however flow in the pipes can be felt while the pump if running after turning the car off, I guess it could not be working optimally, as for the stats I have recently removed both, keeping them out isn’t a long term solution, it was more to see if it changed my symptoms, I found one stat had been broken closed and thought this was the answer to my nightmares however even with completely free flow I am still having overheating. The rad has crossed my mind multiple times however while the engine bay is covered in coolant residue the rad appears to have none, I haven’t checked temps across the core but top and bottom pipes are both hot after a short drive, what’s bothering me the most is that I can drive the car around at 30-60mph with light throttle with zero issues, but sustained 70mph or 3/4 throttle accelerations is causing temp changes to oil and coolant and a loss of coolant too. Because of this I think the engine failure is only showing up under boost, considering the level of workmanship I have uncovered so far on relatively un-invasive work I have serious trust issues. Although I would love to know the issue for my own peace of mind and possibly to help others in a similar situation in the future. Since the car does run and drive and completes some journeys with no issue I’ll probably continue driving it until I’ve found a suitable donor engine 😞 I can’t lie I have fallen in love with my little fabia but until I stop staring at my temp gauges I can’t really enjoy it

Okey dokey.. little update: compression test and leak down test done today, compression on all 4 cylinders was between 145-150psi.. nice and matchy leakdown test was below 20% on all 4 cylinders.. again nice and matchy… Still over heating.. still losing coolant. Still no sign of where coolant is going, noticed it spitting some watery substance from the exhaust when bounced off the 4K soft rev limit, didn’t smell like antifreeze but probably is. at this point I think I’m going to change the engine, I’m sick of this one, I’ll take this engine apart once it’s out the car

Thank you and Yes please, that would be very helpful Yeah I think it’s time I accept that it’s the HG, even though I’ve found issues elsewhere it does keep coming back to HG, at this point it’s wondering if I should just replace the engine, the thought crossed my mind about picking up a written off polo blue gt (2015/16 1.4 turbo) and swapping the engine in(and mapping it to 180bhp) the loom would be a PITA but at the end of it I would have a car with the same power that’s more economical and more reliable. if I do all that work to find a crack in a cylinder wall or a warped head I think it might break me. Especially as I fear I’m going to uncover more of this engines secrets the further I dive into it. out of interest how many hours go into changing the HG on this engine?

According to the garage the head was sent off to be skimmed but if it was a warped head surely I would be loosing coolant all the time and not just under high boost conditions? unless there’s something I’m missing…

So today had another successful trip and a less successful return trip.. (40mins there, 50mins back) no over heating at all on either trip though!! Which is a biiiig improvement, max 95degC oil temp both ways On the way there I drove very gently, but still did the speed limit (probably 10 mins or so at 70mph) didn’t loose a drop of coolant! on the way back I spent less time at 70 but I let the car have a few more aggressive accelerations (3x 5k gear changes in 2nd) and I’ve lost maybe 200ml of coolant… call me crazy but would anyone have a reason for this other than the head lifting? ive so far not been impressed with the work that was carried out when the head gasket was done so why would I not suspect the head not being torqued properly or not re torqued after a heat cycle? I don’t really fancy taking the rocker cover off and I’m not even sure if the head bolts are accessible without removing the cams so if anyone has something else I should try first let me know cheers Tom

While I believe I have the temps more under control now I might be treading on my own toes, without thermostats I am not getting enough flow to the heater core, not too concerned however looking at the coolant diagram I may not be getting enough flow to the oil cooler either. at this point I’m probably over thinking everything and I’m just writing my random rambling thoughts in this forum but only having the time to work on the car once a week for 6 hours means I’ve got far more time to think about the problem than actually solve it 😓

@Wino yeah I think I have some data logging ability, I’ll see what I can do, yes the plan is to replace the thermostats especially before winter, while I’m on a fault finding mission it can stay as it is, I don’t do many journeys at the moment, but will hopefully have it sorted before I need to start working in the office again

Thanks! I promise I won’t look! been reading up on people saying A car shouldn’t even be reaching 90degC coolant without thermostats.. tempted to pull all the hoses and the rad and flush them through, make sure there’s no blockages, didn’t notice any expanded hoses when I was poking around after it was up to temp so I’m thinking they don’t need replacing.

As I understand it around 145degc is when a synthetic will degrade, don’t take my word for it, this is just what I have read, in my case I believe my engine with little load shouldn’t be running so hot, even if it’s not doing damage to the oil I still feel there is something not quite right. Especially when people with the same engine are reporting much lower temps. sounds like your car is working properly, if you run the car unloaded would the temps be between 90 and 100 on the flat? Hopefully an oil change for me will answer my question or create many more.

No, the coolant temp gauge sits perfectly at 90degC, the digital oil temp get up to 107degc, I’ve been driving it gently though, i haven’t tried hard acceleration yet, going to try a few more gentle drives before I test it more, still think the oil is getting hotter than it should be

Okay here goes… removed thermostats: front thermostat appears in good order, no buildup on it removed anyway rear thermostat had lots of white calcium buildup on it.. and the coolant sat behind the plunger was white.. assuming previous owner kept topping it up with tap water.. thermostat removed I cleaned the housings, light dusting of o-ring grease, and refitted, Fresh coolant goes in and bled the system (took ages but I think it’s bled now) not getting hot air in cabin (slightly warm), I can only assume this has to do with not having thermostats to restrict coolant in certain directions to properly flow to the heater core, not majorly concerned. results: coolant temp is absolutely solid now at 90, no concerns about the coolant not flowing properly etc, also no obvious loss of coolant so far (several short drives and a 40-45minute motorway trip However oil temp is still concerning me, it got up to 107 on a steep uphill 50mph burst and was around 105 motorway cruising, I understand this could be sensor deviation but I’m still concerned about the oil that’s in the car, I would have changed the oil today but couldn’t get my hands on a filter and didn’t see the point in changing it without fitting a new filter, Also did a combustion test again, no sign of HG leak, even tested to tester on the exhaust to make sure it was working and it is! This is my update for now, I have a 40 minute trip to make on Tuesday, hopefully it’s another successful journey. I feel like I’m getting closer to resolving this! thanks Tom

Thank you for all your responses, so I’m not saying your wrong about HG as tbh it’s been a high possibility from day 1 but I’m going to throw a spanner in the works When i initially thought it was HG I bought a combustion tester and sure enough it turned yellow indicating exhaust gasses in the coolant I figured I had nothing to loose and poured in some steel seal.. since then I have rechecked with the combustion tester multiple times and it hasn’t changed colour at all, not only that but there’s no white smoke from the exhaust and the tail pipes are never wet. this is the one thing that’s throwing me off HG and why I think something else caused the old HG to go, I have changed the waterpump now and that improved things slightly, I think my next step is going to be fit the cap I have just bought and possibly remove the thermostats. If that fails I’m not sure how much more time and money I’m willing to put into it, real shame because it’s a fantastic little car