Hi I have a 94 Ford Escort 145,00 Km (85,000 Miles) live in Vancouver BC Canada so really mild weather most of the year and I'm wondering if anyone knows the average life of a headgasket.
Plus I hear that if the gasket go's I will have to replace the seats and have the head shaved.
If I replace it now before it go's would I still have to to all the extra work?
All answers would be appreciated Thanks
Head shaved? Why, does it have a beard? ;-)
Jeff
Depends on a few things.
The major problem is keeping the car cool, keeping the head torqued to its proper specs and good quality coolant. The extra work on seats is minimal. It can be done by yourself if youre reasonably handy with tools.
200,000 KMS seems a proper figure to "pull" it. Then do the required work. I would wait till it shows it has problems, but check the compression, but it by itself doesnt mean much if its fairly even and it runs OK. Shaving the head is just to clean up any warps, but I know many people who just replace the head gasket, do the valves and if the head is clean and straight use a good quality head gasket and thats all folks.
On a 94 Escort it is not out of the ordinary for the original head gasket to still be good when it hits the scrap yard with a few hundred thousand KMs on it. However, OCCAISIONALLY they will drop a valve seat. Occaisionally they will take out a head gasket. USUALLY theyblow after overheating - and USUALLY they drop valve seats after overheating. Every one I've seen with a blown head gasket had other problems that contributed to the overheating so I SUSPECT the headgasket was a reasult, not the primary cause. You DO need to maintain the coolant pH so the rad doesn't corrode and loose antifreeze, or lime up.
As for replacing it now, it MAY extend the life of the valve seats, and you won't likely need to plane the head.
Often when the valve seats let go you end up with a SCRAP engine.
...and replace seats? buckets or bench? ;-) Jeff, it's getting late! s
Depends on whether is was one of the gasket made after the government force the gasket manufacturers to stop using asbestos without giving them time to develop a suitable replacement material and whether you have on the engines in a Toyota, GM, Ford, or Chrysler that used one that was made a material that did not work well. Ho long will one last? I own '41,'64,'71,'72 and '83 Fords vehicles that all still have the original head gaskets.
As to a 94, the gasket problem had been settled by then. If you are concerned, check you coolant level weekly, if you notice a small be consistent loss of coolant take it to a competent tech for pressure testing. I the gasket is going bad it can be changed long before any damage will occurs to the engine.
mike
I have been driving Escorts since January 1985 and have never had a head gasket problem. I do not believe that it is a problem on these cars. For more Escort specific info go here:
Depends mainly o maintainance, Change the whole coolant regularly b4 the due dates etc. and it should last a long time, but not forever.
Head gasket problems on the Escort were becoming more rare by 1985. The earlier 1.6 was almost notorious for blowing the gasket. Most owners didn't recognize the symptoms before it was too late. In many cases this lead to one or more overheating incidents followed by a warped or cracked head. The junk yards in my area ran out of good heads that could be rebuilt. IIRC, 1983 was a particularly bad year for this. When the
1.9 came out in the late 80's, the head gasket issue was pretty much over. My 94' with the 1.9 had a tendency to let the engine temperature gauge get up to at least 3/4-scale before the cooling fan came on, especially when idling. I didn't feel comfortable with that, so I changed the fan temp' switch. This made the fan come on well below 3/4-scale, which for all I know, may have prevented a head gasket incident in later years.MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.