Morris Minor Owners Club

After dropping the wife off at work this morning the car started blowing clouds smoke from the exhaust. so pulled over called the aa. they came after about 45 minutes filled the car back up with water and said start her up which i did. the water they had just put in was forced out of the radiator in time with the engine. how easy is it to change the gasket and what other problems could i be facing.

Changing the head gasket is as easy as it gets apart from on side valve engines.
You don't need to worry the head warping like you would if it was made of aluminium.
Also as it's not an overhead cam engine so the valve timing won't need setting.
A bit of gentle searching should find a blow by blow account of how to do it.

Blow by blow lol

It takes less than an hour at the side of the road - you could have had it done before the useless AA arrived! He's supposed to repair your car - did he not do it for you? I always carry a spare gasket..... If you don't have a Workshop Manual = PM me......

Cheers. no manual so pm sent.

Rob

Hmmm - PM not received - but I have sent you an interesting link.......

just incase the block is knackered found this on ebay how easy would it be to fit. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Austin-Healey ... 2ebbcf17d4

It will fit - but it's VERY expensive - presumably because it is an AH engine - which actually has absolutely no advantage over a normal 948 engine.

As the water and oil have mixed how do i make sure that i get all the water out of the oil and all through oil out of the oil. Would an engine flush do the job and back flushing the water side of things work. how much damage is this likely to have done.

Just change the oil and filter. Any little bits of water that happen to remain will evaporate during subsequent running of the engine.

What about oil in the waterways

Flush it out;
add some non-sudsing detergent, fill the cooling system w/water, run untill it's all heated up, drain, let cool, flush with cold water, refill and you're off, although it MIGHT take a 2 or 3 flushes to get it all the oil out.

Non sudsing detergent what and where from.

It's used in clothes washing machines.

Hi today me and my son took the cylinder head off to see just how bad the damage was. and this is what we found after just taking the spark plugs out[frame][/frame] Once we got the head off[frame][/frame]

And the gasket looked like this[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

yes exactly typical of blown gasket,fit a new gasket and change the oil, and filter ,no need to flush it out the water will just evaporate once up and running. Do a search on here the proceedure has been discussed many times.

Not sure how typical it is to have blown there, between 2 cylinders is more common in my experience.
Examine the surfaces of the head and block carefully especially in the area where the gasket went.
Both surfaces need to be very clean but don't be tempted to use any abrasives to clean them up.
Don't forget the areas around the studs.

That is an unusual blow - possibly caused by a loose stud, but check the block carefully for evidence of a crack.