I just wonder if any one has had a new head gasket fitted and how much it cost. It looks like mine has gone overheating and blowing white smoke out of the exhaust, also using loads off water.:(

I paid about £300 some years ago. Not including the money to get me towed off the motorway :(

Are you also getting oil in the water? You might also see an emulsion on the dipstick if you take that out and take a look. (Let engine cool down a bit.... :) )

When I blew the head gasket the engine just wasn't runnable - I had to be towed in.

There's also another gasket at the bottom of the engine, don't forget.

If the head gasket has blown and you've driven any distance then there might be engine damage which will cost more to fix than just the gasket istelf.

When I blew mine on a Rover 220GTi it cost about GBP500 and the car was never the same again.

Joe

Yup, on my dads old Rover it was upwards of £500 but in saying that it had done a lot of damage :?

Won't be cheap my friend :(

Originally posted by JoeP
Are you also getting oil in the water? You might also see an emulsion on the dipstick if you take that out and take a look. (Let engine cool down a bit.... :) )
Joe

You might also see oil deposits inside the cooling system expansion tank.

Originally posted by JoeP
When I blew mine on a Rover 220GTi it cost about GBP500 and the car was never the same again.
Joe

Common fault on Rover K series engines, mine went at 89K, had it skimmed and re-fitted was ok after, but the eventual death of the car was due to the rusted body work and off to the scrap yard she went.

My dad's old toyota carina blew it's head gasket when I was driving it through heavy traffic about 15 years ago.

Because it had an aliminium engine, the head had to be completely stripped and sent for an ultrascan to make sure there weren't any tiny cracks.

What kind of car are you talking about?

Well sounds like its time for a new car then, anybody want to buy a Espace with slight problem ;)

Originally posted by Bikertec
Well sounds like its time for a new car then, anybody want to buy a Espace with slight problem ;)

Sell it sold as seen on ebay, someones will buy it.

Our Clio blew it's head gasket last month due to the water pump failing and a sudbequent overheating.

£430 to Jupiter garage Heeley. Works fine again.

Did mine myself with a mate and a Haynes manual - it isnt hard on most cars, just time consuming (hence big bills). Cost me £20 for the full gasket set including new bolts... job done. :)

I should point out, the above was on a Ford Orion I own, not the Supra :)

when the gasket went on the old citroen, 8 quid for bits and 600+ sovs to fit it - I don't think so. The Haynes it is then :)

Took a few hours to sort out - fine afterwards and I had sore fingers

Big sis's 1 year old Rover 75 cost £1300 to put right after the garage told her there was nothing wrong so she drove it and damaged the pots. The garage footed the bill after the mechanic admitted fault. His reasoning was that the car was too new for the problem (only 65k miles).

It went again at 100k and again at 130k (then she traded the pile of **** in and never looked back!).

The biggest bill that I've ever seen for this is £1600, but that was on a grey import 4x4 with damage to the engine from the gasket blowing.

Good luck- you might find a way of doing it for less than £500.

After the first failure on the 220 it went OK for a while then cooked up again one evening on the way back from Leeds.

The engine overheated, drank oil and showed low compression on one cylinder, but we couldn't work out what the problem was. Most weird.

Put me off Rovers for good, which was a shame because I'd had two others before the 220 which had been OK.

Joe

Recentish (i.e. anything in the last 10~15 years) R*vers are terrible for having head gaskets go at lowish mileages. I think the cooling systems are just... 'rubbish', to put it politely.

Originally posted by SupraSteve
Recentish (i.e. anything in the last 10~15 years) R*vers are terrible for having head gaskets go at lowish mileages. I think the cooling systems are just... 'rubbish', to put it politely.

Most problems are with 1600cc & 1800cc + units, smaller 1400cc are not as bad. Due to boring out on the larger engines the walls between each cylinder become increasing thin as well as the head gaskets are pretty thin also.

Thanks for all your input, with the amount of trouble with the bloody thing I think it will be definitely going.:thumbsup:

i had a renault laguna 2.2 diesel got quoted £550 for the head gasket to fix not many independant garages like dont working on renaults best thing to do is ring round a few garages starting at main dealers they are always the most expensive then take it from there m8 :thumbsup:

Originally posted by SupraSteve
Recentish (i.e. anything in the last 10~15 years) R*vers are terrible for having head gaskets go at lowish mileages. I think the cooling systems are just... 'rubbish', to put it politely.

Never had a problem 60,000 miles on mine since we got it. The problem existed for a few years (not sure on the year but think it may have been 98?) when Rover changed metal dowels to plastic dowels which allowed the gasket to shift, they very quickly changed back to the metal ones.

As for rust Rover 200 Mk2 in general don't rust assuming you haven't scratched all the paint work off.

The K is actually still one of the best engines available.

The coolant systems aren't rubbish it is down to the owner having a poor understanding of engines and not understanding the word maintenance. Change the antifreeze when your supposed to, check water levels regularly and all is fine.

Unfortunately Rovers go through head gaskets no matter how much maintenance you give them, - change the coolant/antifreeze every day if you like, I will still be surprised if you get to 100k miles without the head gasket going.

A good proportion of Rovers owners I've spoken to reported that their cars gasket going between 60k and 75k miles - so good luck ;)

Shocking really, most other manufacturers manage to get to at least 150k miles without head problems.

The other thing Rovers are 'good' at, especially the 'new 400/45' shape, is minor electrical problems - they're especially good at blowing brake/headlights.