tips on changing head gasket?

Post by **ben739** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 7:39 pm

gonna start this tomorrow, my Haynes manual i ordered hasnt arrived in the post yet, so not sure how to do this as i have never done it before. but been told by a mate and a mechanic thats what i need to have done.

Post by **Welung666** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 7:41 pm

Gimme 10 minutes to type it and you'll have a PM Ben.

Post by **Packedup** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 8:20 pm

Main thing to remember is to drain the coolant before doing anything else. Otherwise you'll spend ages soaknig water up out the cylinders, and really ought to do an oil change too (though if you have to scrape bits of old gasket off the block the oil should be done anyway).

There's a pattern to undoing the head nuts to stop the head warping, but to date I've never bothered with it, and never had a warped head - But I'd recommend finding the order and sticking to it all the same!

It's really very straightforward though - I got it down to roughly 45 mins on a Mini, sometimes including the nasty hateful exhaust clamp that isn't such a nightmare on Minors

Post by **Welung666** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 8:23 pm

The tightening sequence is in my PM, forgot about the oil change though

Thanks for adding it Packedup

Lee

Post by **badfelafel** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 10:50 pm

This is from the Pearsons guide, hope it helps

Post by **bmcecosse** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 4:10 pm

I did post a guide earlier - follow it and you won't go wrong for taking it off. Order of undoing the nuts is not that important - just be sensible and undo them all slightly- then a bit more - then take them all off. I'll be surprised if gasket is the problem.