My Mum rung me today enthusing over a Rover 216 W-reg that she'd looked at and asked me to take a look at it with her. So I went, took a look round. Thought, not bad at £1,800. 55k miles, SH upto 35k.
Then looked under the bonnet. Hmmmm seems to be a lot of oil dripping around the engine on the main block.
Checked dipstick - sure enough filled with fresh oil - a nice gravy colour.
Coolant tank looked brown - tried to get the coolant lid off. I think he must have tried supergluing it on - took a few minutes and a helluva mighty effort to get it off. Got it off eventually. Oh my god, what are those big blobs in the brown coolant? Looked on the filler cap - sure enough - full of "mayonnaise".
Took keys back to house - sorry mate, head gasket's gone. "What, you mean, it's JUST gone?? It drive alright!"
Mum wanted to go for a drive. I said, "Don't bother, let's go".
Just thought I'd share that with you.
Cheers Paul, Wakefield