Head gasket replacement or 2nd hand engine?

[BlueMonster]

So, the head gasket has gone on my Mk1 2005 Fabia VRS. It has been confirmed with a sniff test and the coolant bottle was pressurised when the car was cold.

Anyway, the garage where my car is at seem to think that it's going to cost me over £600 to sort the head without giving me an exact quote until Monday morning. This has got me thinking about replacing the motor as I've managed to find 2 engines complete with injectors with less than 70k on both if them vs mine at 132k for around £500.

I know that there's fitting & swapping all the bits & pieces off my old engine to the replacement but it may be worth it in the long run with me doing 500 miles per week commuting to work.

What have other people done in this situation & how much has it cost you? I know that this will vary by garage but it will give me a better idea.

[coskev]

TBH the gasket is as much of a age related thing as mileage,so even with one of those used engines before it was fitted I personally would be doing a head gasket with PD150 head bolts.

It will also need a cambelt/water pump kit,and if your clutch is not recent it's false economy to not replace the clutch and flywheel whilst engine is apart.

Air con re gas will be needed too.

A downside is that you don't know the oil change history etc too,so could be putting in a lower miles engine that's not been maintained correctly.

It's not going to be cheap what ever you choose I'm afraid if you can't do it yourself!

I would say though that £600 should be the top price for the complete job including all gaskets, a timing belt kit and getting the head checked by a machine shop.

I had my head checked over,light skim,fully decoked,valves reseated and new valve stem oil seals for £100 at my local engine shop.

Edited 24 January, 2016 by coskev

[BlueMonster]

I've very recently had a new clutch & brand new turbo & it's always been serviced with the correct oil so at least I know what I've got.

The only thing that concerns me is that I had a coolant leak a few months ago & put some k-seal in it to sort it & then topped it back up with a litre or so of blue coolant. It only dawned on me what I'd done when my coolant light came on this week & I noticed the colour of the coolant obviously brought on by mixing red & blue. I've done probably 10,000 miles with it like this which may have contributed towards the head failure?

I've read that it does the engine no good with k-seal in it for any length of time plus the wrong mix of coolant. Will this have caused any damage to my engine as there's no point in repairing something that's likely to fail again due to my stupidity?

Whatever route I go down I'm going to have to get a new radiator to fix this coolant leak.

Edited 24 January, 2016 by BlueMonster

[coskev]

The bottom end/block is cast steel so I can't see K-seal hurting it.

If you decide to replace your gasket I would drop your existing coolant/K-seal bodge mix,add some radiator/cooling system flush and run that in it for a day or so before stripping it down.

I would be looking at putting a new cam kit in the head if it was me whilst it's in bits too,as it's such a common issue with these.

Won't cost you anymore in labour as the cam will be out anyway!

[sepulchrave]

Don't worry about the coolant thing, it's a total non-issue.

 

So, no, you haven't damaged the engine and getting the head gasket redone properly will fix it permanently, if you feel like spending a bit more then replace the cam and followers when the head is done or get an exchange recon head with a good guarantee.

[BlueMonster]

I was thinking about getting a remap at some point soon so would it be worth putting, PD 150 head bolts in it whilst they are at it or would the standard bolts be fine?

Obviously conscious of cost here too.

Edited 24 January, 2016 by BlueMonster

[coskev]

Yeah fit pd150 bolts whatever,no more expensive but a higher tensile bolt.

[sepulchrave]

I was thinking about getting a remap at some point soon so would it be worth putting, PD 150 head bolts in it whilst they are at it or would the standard bolts be fine?

Obviously conscious of cost here too.

 

I believe that's what's referred to as a 'no brainer', PD150 bolts cost the same and are better.

[BlueMonster]

I believe that's what's referred to as a 'no brainer', PD150 bolts cost the same and are better.

 

Fair enough as I wasn't aware that they cost the same  

[alex_e3]

As above really - spot on first post by Kev.

 

You're taking your chances just as much it not more with a second hand engine. So just get the head whipped off and done. If you can do it yourself then you'll save a bomb on labour charges! Plus job satisfaction

 

+1 for PD150 head bolts. If you get the head gasket changed, rebuilt top end, new cam bearings (plus possibly cam if worn), cambelt and water pump done, then you've pretty much future proofed your engine for a fair while (other than any catastrophic failures you can't account for).