Thread: suspected blown head gasket

My next door neighbour and I are retired Micks, we could come over and have a butchers some time if you like, he doesn't know that yet.

I have done a head gasket, at Marla Bore with pretty much the tools I had on board.

It is pretty straight forward, the only problem I had was to reconnect the battery whilst it was apart and fried the turbo return hose, lit up like a firework!!!

Cheers

Mike

Hi guys, owner here. I did the combustion gas leak test again and this time it went green pretty quick. So went out and bought a new head gasket and bolts. Epic Dragon might be helping us replace it because husband and I haven't done it before. Will send the head off to be checked too.

Thanks so much for all the advice everyone, I really, really appreciate it!

heres the list of things to keep your eyes on.

injector pipe routing and the clamp rubbers for them.

radiator and heater hoses,

the metal run past pipe for the heater hoses.

exhaust gasket and studs

the pipe for the turbo drain.

dipstick.

watch the alternator for shorting (remove the earth, all of them if you have dual batteries.

thattl do for openers

watch the pipe routing and wiring routing at the back of the head its easy to catch and crimp them or to snap old tie backs so the wires can hit the exhuast.

Water pump

p gasket

theres 2 sets of wires on sensors in the U pipe for the thermostat housing, dont mix these up.

Let us know how you go Binca

two rear head bolts wont come out coz bulkhead is in the way. just unscrew them until they are loose and then use cable tie or rubber band to hold them up and together. then remove head. you will need to do the same when u replace the head, or you wont get the bolts in. place them in head tied together to keep them up and place head on block.

make sure you order right head gasket. there are 3 different thicknesses.

the glow plugs will need to go in before as well other you have to remove the AC compressor to get to the front one. I think it was glow plug. definitely something which caught me out and I had already bolted head down.

It's a 300Tdi for crying out loud - just replace the head gasket.....if you dont do it now, you'll be doing it sooner, rather than later. Easy job, just make sure everything is DEAD flat........

I'll be coming through about this time next week.

hows this job shaping up?

Just finished it the other day - sorry for the late reply!

Sent the head off to be checked and all that. It pressure tested fine and had no cracks. Needed skimming and a few other little things (I don't remember exactly what, sorry) doing to it.

Once everything was put back together we had to adjust the valve clearances - but that wasn't too hard.

Also discovered when we first pulled the head off that one of the valve caps had somehow come off and was crushed. Oops. So now that is replaced as well.

Engine runs a lot quieter now, and more powerful. I think we can thank the valve adjustments for a lot of that.

Now to get the exhaust replaced - we have a major exhaust leak. We have a friend who runs an exhaust shop we are getting quotes from now though.

Overall, the disco is now running nicely, at a consistent temperature. But it does still have other things that need work.

Thanks for the help/advice everyone!