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Rover 214....blown Head gasket????

My 1998 Rover 214 has been losing coolant for some time now. (over the last year/10,000 miles)

It has'nt caused any problems, but I have never been able to trace the leak........recently the coolant has been dissappearing at an increased rate (about a pint a week).

I noticed today, while following the car with my wife driving, that there seemed to be alot of steam coming from the exhaust.....(not that unusual in this type of car) but it was accompanied by a bit of water dripping out of the exhaust on acceleration.

The car has no other symptoms.....the oil is clean and mayo free, and the coolant is completly clean.....it starts fine and the engine runs well.

However the loss of coolant and the watery exhaust would indicate head gasket failure.....Would you all agree?

I know these engines are prone to head gasket failure, but I know people sometimes jump to this conclusion without properly looking at other possibilities......is there any other problem which could produce these symptoms.

The car has only done 46,000 miles, So I'll be unamused if it is the head gasket.

Whats the going rate for getting a head gasket done? Anything I should check before I fork out?

Reply to
Paul
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On a K-series lump, I wouldn't be.

Reply to
SteveH

Check the inlet manifold gasket first - much easier to check, and could cause these exact symptoms. A new one is around a tenner, and takes about an hour to fit. The new type of gasket which is more reliable was fitted from around 1999, so you won't have one of these yet. If your head gasket had been leaking for a year, I would have expected something more dramatic to have happened by now.

Reply to
Bob Davis

Condensation/water in the exhaust is impossible to visually assess as being headgasket.

Water loss that is difficult to trace might be water pump (right mileage) or inlet gasket (very common) or heater matrix (less common)

Add a flourescent leak dye (halfords) and have a proper look for a leak.

Assuming no leaks then get a garage to test for blown head gasket using a 'block leak test' which checks for CO in the coolant.

MrCheerful

Reply to
MrCheerful

Agreed. The pre '99 OE inlet manifold gaskets weren't up to much. IIRC, they usually allow coolant to leak into no.4 cylinder. You could check the condition of the plug in no.4 cylinder as the steam created by the presence of coolant will have had a 'cleaning' effect.

HTH

Reply to
Michael Cotton

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