Morris Minor Owners Club

My friends father has a P reg Rover 214. Head gasket gone. What is the preferred route to fix this, and is it likely to cost more than the car is worth (ie about £300). I would be supplying labour, so its just parts and aggro level. Any "K" series experts wish to comment?

You will spend a few hundred on parts. But really it depends on the milage of the engine.
Buy the best Payne gaskets ,make sure its the laminated style of head gasket and that there are steel dowels rather than plastic. Heads can turn porous after an overheat, but this is not a general rule.
I'd say do it if the rest of the car is reliable

A friend at work is a K expert (worked in design office at Rover at that time).
What i know from his is rather limited but often the castings are poor quality (due to accountants not design so I'm told) so some were impregnated due to porosity. There are a couple of other things that may be an issue too.
However if it's the first HG failure and hasn't been driven much with failed HG then they are usually fixable. Worst case is second hand / recon head.

get the head pressure tested, and if ok ,resurface it. new bolts, gasket set, timing belt, water pump,thermostat, if radiator corroded-replace it,remove small ball bearing valve from inlet manifold coolant return pipe(the one that goes to the expansion tank). done lots of these , not too difficult, go for it!

p.s. remember good quality sealant between cambox and cylinder head!

rv8 wrote:get the head pressure tested, and if ok ,resurface it. new bolts, gasket set, timing belt, water pump,thermostat, if radiator corroded-replace it,remove small ball bearing valve from inlet manifold coolant return pipe(the one that goes to the expansion tank). done lots of these , not too difficult, go for it!

So, is the water pump a standard throwaway item, ie does it wear out quickly? Car has only been poodled around until nephew of elderly owner took it over a month back. Gasket probably died of shock!

if overheated the impellor falls off the pump!

As above - I believe it is VERY important to use NEW head bolts. They are one use only - stretched beyond the elastic limit when installed. Pull iut to bits and study the surfaces very carefully - if not damaged by the 'blowing' - then go for it.

Unfortunately though some of the 'new' head bolts are of poor quality and can snap , causing a major problem. Although not ideal re using the old 'good ' bolts can be a better answer.

jonathon wrote:Unfortunately though some of the 'new' head bolts are of poor quality and can snap , causing a major problem. Although not ideal re using the old 'good ' bolts can be a better answer.

What the hell is going on?? It seems anything you buy today has only a 50/50 chance of being any good!! So it often seems to be better to use/fix old parts or buy secondhand!
Thanks for the answers- I'll do as BMC suggests- strip and see. I've got to remember two things though; 1. The value of the car, and more importantly, 2. The owners are farmers and will expect it fixed for nothing!

Surely the repair should be subsidised then

Pete

Not if the Rover is considered as Set aside!

k series hg is about 4 hour job, lovely and easy. If k series has been cooked don't bother its scrap.

Head bolts need changing if they are over a certain length only and I have never met one stretched that far. I would always favour using the old ones again.

Use the freelander headgasket, its much better. Always new water pump and thermostat at the same time.

Good luck

As its a P reg car then its an earlier engine so more likely not to have casting damage to the head face - seems that generally later engines are worse for this. As said above though, it will have plastic dowels - which may have caused the HGF by allowing the head to move on the block. A new HG should come with SS dowels - they are a tight fit into the block and head compared with the plastic but are like that for a reason!

DONT get the head skimed unless the engine has overheated and warped, many people do this as a matter of course and it can weaken the hardened surface of the head.

Again as said above, don't fit new bolts unless the old ones are out of spec (rare)

Main thing to check is the cylinder liner height when the head is off. THe liners must be higher than the block face (would need to research the dimension), if they have sunk below the level of the block the engine has had it - you will never get a decent seal between the liner and HG.

I did mine on an MGF and fitted the Land Rover MLS (multi layer steel) version - around £30 from Land Rover.

I would confirm as well that its an easy DIY fix, as long as the engine is suitable.