D2 blown head gasket ?

**Rosscoe68** · 3rd January 2011, 10:47 PM

so looking at some threads on here, looks like i am due to take off the head for some work. oh well, its got best part of 300,000 klms on her and this will be there first time if the history on this car is correct.
pumping out about 1/2 litre of coolant on a 20 klm round trip. if i don't top it up, it just keeps pumping coolant out and it ends up getting hot. symptoms look to me like a stuck thermostat as it gets hot(95+ on nanocom), then all of a sudden the thermostat must open and the temp drops back down to 86 or so. i don't think i am that easily fooled though, i am thinking its getting an airlock behind thermo from combustion pressure in the coolant system and thats stopping the thermostat from normal function.

oh, its a TD5 incase you hadn't already guessed

**topnham** · 3rd January 2011, 11:04 PM

if you need help i would be happy to help

**Rosscoe68** · 4th January 2011, 12:11 AM

thanks top.

does anyone know if you can do a sniffer test on the TD5 to see if it has combustion gasses in the coolant. i guess i want to convince myself ts the head before i pull it off

**Grumpy** · 5th January 2011, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by Rosscoe68

thanks top.

does anyone know if you can do a sniffer test on the TD5 to see if it has combustion gasses in the coolant. i guess i want to convince myself ts the head before i pull it off

Sorry for the delay Rosscoe, had a few puter problems. It would work then it would stop. Now fixed I hope.

If you call in and see Kevin Falconbridge at Rovertec, he should be able to help you with the test.

Tony

**eckolsim** · 5th January 2011, 11:00 PM

A sniffer test may not be necessary. Mine was diagnosed by a dyno but you should be able to find out easily yourself.

When the engine is cold, open the expansion tank cap and release any residual pressure. Put the cap back on. Start the engine (warm it a little) and run it at 3k to 4k rpm briefly (30 seconds?). Let the engine settle back down and then hop out and see if there is an excessive amount of pressure in the expansion tank. (gently release the cap slowly).

The trick is not to let the engine get too hot or the pressure will be the normal running pressure and may be mistaken. A cold engine should not build up a lot of pressure until it is at operating temp. If the gasket is gone, pressure from one of the pots will be leaking into the cooling system and causing the coolant to be pushed out. The cap release pressure is 16 psi, however my experience was when this was happening, every weak spot in my cooling system systematically failed one at a time as I replaced the next weakest link.

Disclaimer etc. I am not a mechanic etc, blah blah. Any better technical advice out there should be heeded first.

P.S. doing the head gasket yourself is not hard but needs special tooling and patience.

**Rosscoe68** · 5th January 2011, 11:28 PM

yeah, been following leaking hosesm and clamps from one side of the colling system to the other, which leads me to think thats ithe the headgasket. and yes it doens build up a fair amount of pressure on a short 2 minute run. also seems to be constant flow of bubbles in the tank, but that doesn't really mean anything these days with remote header tanks and constant bypass thermostats making it harder to see whats going on.

going out 4wding in the morning in the other car then clean a spot in the shed and off with the head methinks

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