Thread: Should I be driving this?

If you keep driving it it WILL hydraulic and bend a conrod. That will require many thousands of dollars to rectify ON TOP of the head repairs, may even be cheaper to get another used engine
My advice is stop using it, you have been lucky this far.
Ddon't leve it sitting around with a cylinder with water in it either, get it to the mech ASAP and take the head off straight away.


JC

sounds like the head to me and the coolant is leaking into the cylinders. The more it is driven the more damage that can happen. I would avoide driving it

STOP

Fix the head.

' Sigh' Thought that might be the case. Thanks guys, back to my second home, the waiting room at the mechanics!

Well it's been at the mechanic 3 days now and they can't find where the coolant is going. They can't find anything external and say it's not the head gasket and so won't take the head off to check. Typically it has started first time every time whilst it has been in the workshop although it is running a bit rough so they will investigate that.

If there is nothing external and 'it's not the head' where else would the coolant go?

the exhaust gas recircualtion cooler.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

the exhaust gas recircualtion cooler.

Not sure it'll have one. I've got a 2000 TD5 as well, and recently removed the EGR system. No cooler on it. Later ones did I believe.

Are they running the engine hard in the shop, or just starting her up and stopping it again? I'm just thinking that if you drive it for a while, and there is a head gasket leak, the engine is likely to overheat a bit, which might make it rougher to start next time. Won't happen in the shop if its only running for a few seconds. The temperature gauge really isnt one, it's a fancy looking overheating lamp, and doesn't give a reliable temperature reading. Might be worth fitting a proper temp gauge and see what's really going on.

There's another thread floating around about coolant loss. If it's leaking out onto something hot, it'll evaporate quickly.

I think your mechanics are comedians or physicists. If the leak is not internal, and its not external, doesn't leave many options short of a wormhole to another universe

Any reason they think its not the head gasket?

Originally Posted by Pinelli

I think your mechanics are comedians or physicists. If the leak is not internal, and its not external, doesn't leave many options short of a wormhole to another universe

yep, ever since I cracked the sock wormhole mechanism thats built into driers and washing machines Ive got a secret patent and an agreement with the SAE, ISO standards board and from the companies that provide the raw metals to companies that make head gaskets, ally head enigines, radiators and thermostats that permits me to have it quantum engineered at the sub molecular level into those components, The real bonus is as it functions on the quantum level of indeterminism I only had to make one and it self retrofits in accordance with Schrodinger's principle subject to murphys corollary so that the item that will develop the worm hole is (in order of magnitude princple) the one that is most likely to cause the worst delays in logistical availability, ease of access and price.

I believe that I have also located the delivery point of my patented wormhole tech and its in titan. The proof of this is that scientists have now started to identify liquid on saturns largest moon. heres a link and some excerpts

Originally Posted by that ^ article

NASA scientists said today they had found liquid on Saturn's moon Titan, only the second body in the solar system after Earth to have fluid on its surface.

The groundbreaking discovery was made after analysis of instruments on the US-European Cassini probe, the spacecraft that has been orbiting Saturn since 2004 following a 3.5 billion-kilometre voyage.

and

Originally Posted by same article

NASA said in a statement that information from Cassini indicated that large lakes on Titan contained liquid hydrocarbons

along with

Originally Posted by same article again

"This is the first observation that really pins down that Titan has a surface lake filled with liquid,"

now that we know where the coolant is going there is likely to be some major problems with the enviro nazis. oh the oil that your engine is loosing is most likely winding up in james 90's oil filter.

Originally Posted by Pinelli

Any reason they think its not the head gasket?

yes there is, it could be the head

if you dont have the egr cooler and a hot pressure test isnt showing any extenal leaks, theres no coolant in the oil or oil in the coolant or coolant showing up in the fuel water seperator portion of the fuel filter or tank then its the head gasket or the head.

Since getting to the head means getting to the head gasket your next bet is to strip the head off and start inspecting things. But prior to that to prove coolant is getting into the combustion chamber pull the glow plugs and check them, ones that look like they're being steam cleaned are the ones that are getting coolant on them.