Head Gasket [ Big Trouble, me thinks ]

[supercat 2001]

Train to Liverpool, view 4 door Morris Minor, [ 1958, 2 former keepers ] like what i see,
pay my cash, check oil/water, shake hands an off i jolly well go, back to Scotland,
[ well so i thought ] gone 50 mls or so, and i sense a kind of "steamy" smell, a few
seconds later i notice the steam, bellowing everywhere, stop, to check, lift oil filler cap,
and oh my, like a pressure cooker in there, oil forcing its way out, the colour of the dreaded
maynaise, luckily i took out breakdown cover, so 1 hour later, i,m loaded up, and on our way home,
arrive home 3 am, question is, "what do i do now"? scrap engine??? and what was the cause of this
catastrophy???

[kennatt]

get back in touch with the seller and see what he has to say about it,before doing anything else thats what I would do initially,depends who it was private or garage/dealer

[Neil MG]

If the car drove ok it may well just be the head gasket, but the question is why? Possibly cracks in the head in which case the seller almost certainly will have known. A recently fitted head gasket being a big clue! My understanding is that, private or trade, it is not permitted to sell a car with a known fault without informing the buyer. If it can be reasonably shown that the seller must have known then he must either fix (or pay to be fixed) or give you your money back. Have someone who knows about engines take a look and then go back to the seller. If they deny all knowledge threaten with an engineers report and a solicitor and costs if it goes to court.

[phurn]

Tbf if that's its first drive in a while head gaskets have been known to go, could just be bad luck. Not a big job if it is just a gasket.

[chickenjohn]

Head gasket and a general de-coke, grinding the valves in and changing the valve stem oil seals etc is something that is a good idea to be done every 5 or six years or so on a Minor as an overhaul. Head gasket sets are not expensive and the work involved is part of the fun of owning a Minor. The car will run noticably better for it!

It is unusual for an A series head or block to crack unless the engine froze up in the winter due to no anti freeze.

Off with its head and have a look!

[sudburypaul]

I've just done the work that chickenjohn suggests following a valve spring break and took the opportunity to have a good clean up while in there. I did it with my 17 yr old daughter, a complete novice mechanic, and she did most of the work while I supervised and started off the really tight nuts that she couldn't manage. It is a pretty straightforward job and the car is running so much better for it. The new gasket seems fine and was torqued and re-torqued to the correct spec, although daughter reported a small loss of fluid when she stopped last night, which I think seems to have emerged from the radiator overflowpipe (the car has run fine all week until this). When she got home and I took it for a ride it was fine again. I'm wondering if it has had a slight airlock or that I overfilled the rad rather than any pressure building up from a blown gasket to cause it. I did fill the rad almost to the top so maybe it has levelled off now to about an inch lower than it was. I'm going to keep an eye on it, but there is no loss of power(for what its worth on an 803 engine) and its running reasonably quietly with very little emission from the exhaust and no signs of any mayonnaise under the rocker cover.

Paul

[chickenjohn]

You sometimes do lose a bit of coolant from the overflow pipe. I have see that some folks use a length of tubing and a plastic bottle mounted on the passenger side of the engine bay to catch any overflow- which the system may then suck back in again on cooling.

[bmcecosse]

Rad should not be filled to the top - it will settle at it's own level. For the original poster - brave move to buy a Minor and hope to just drive it back up the hill to Scotland! But hopefully it will be an easy fix - as others have suggested - off with it's head! Even if the engine is damaged - it's not difficult to change -and plenty of them around. Where are you in Ecosseland ??

[chickenjohn]

Rad should not be filled to the top - it will settle at it's own level. -snip-

Indeed, I just fill mine to just below (an inch or so) the neck of the rad. Needs some room for expansion when hot.

[mike.perry]

I would go with kennat. Notify the previous owner before anything else and you may come to an amicable settlement.
There was a case recently where an item was bought from a fellow MMOC member and was found not to be in the condition described. The previous owner was contacted and was not aware of the problem but gave a full refund.
Purchaser happy and item re advertised for a lower price with fault described

[supercat 2001]

Now in the light of day, i,ve had a look at things,
checking 1] oil in the sump, via dipstick, correct level,
and no sign of mayonaise, 2] oil filler cap, some mayonaise,
3] water level, very low, approx 3-4 litres require to fill,
4] run engine, fast idle, looking in with radiator cap off,
movement of water evident, with no mayonaise,
5] run engine,20 mins, normal idle, cap on, stop
engine, allow to cool, result, water level low,
requiring to top up with, 2-3 litres, conclusion required ?????????

[Neil MG]

Conclusion - coolant leak!

Mayonaise on the filler is quite common after the car has been standing with little use for a long time. Moisture (condensate - water) in the engine that will gradually disappear after a few longish trips.

Find the leak and your problem may be solved.

[Neil MG]

Hmmm!

You didn't mention water all over your drive though...

There should be the initial overflow as the water heats up at least. Or is water leaking into one or more cylinders and coming out of the exhaust?

[bmcecosse]

Does it run nice and evenly - all 4 firing smoothly?

[supercat 2001]

Would not really like to contact seller as some suggested,
as i already knocked off some £900 from his selling price !!!
and i really wanted her, 2 owner 1958 Minor [ 4 door ]
nearly all history since new, including most of the mot,s.

[supercat 2001]

Does it run nice and evenly - all 4 firing smoothly?

she ticks over like a swiss watch, there is no obvious signs of water leakage,
as for an initial leak via the overflow pipe, could the thermostat, or rad cap
be at fault??

[Neil MG]

Could be that with running dry the first fill didn't in fact fill the system and it needed to run for a (very short normally) while to fill up and dispel the air. Try running again and see what happens.

[supercat 2001]

This seems to have been a BIG FALSE ALARM, have run "Sebastian" on and off for the last week
or so, and he is going fine, i,ve done around 100 miles or so, no mayonaise, and negliagble water
loss, just shows you these engines are very hardy...........

[mike.perry]

Compression test or at least four even compressions on the starting handle.