head gaskets - timescale for arranging a repair ?

I would rate that rate of water loss as very inconclusive. Have you been cleaning out the mayo regularly? That would remove some water each time.

Not that regularly tbh, but its something i`ll keep my eye on a little more in future I think...

The message from Colin Wilson contains these words:

That sounds more likely, given the mileage and usage. Give it a good long thrash to get it really hot and see if it reccurs. Keep checking the water level assiduously .

Sounds about right.

I had a car with a leaking head gasket, and it was dry after 4 days of moderate use, unbeknown to me of course.

They just 'go'. The usual cause is a small split/break in the gasket between the water jacket and the combustion chamber.It can be like this for a few weeks, but in that time the water level will drop, with no visible leakage - it'll be going out of the exhaust. Once it gets bigger, the water will be gone in seconds/minutes, and the engine will quickly overheat.If you dont notice this, it'll just get hotter, and the head will likely warp.Once it has overheated, they'll be black smoke everywhere - I was doing 50 on the m/way, looked down, temp. guage in the red, s*it, time to pull over, by the time I'd got to the shoulder, there was a plume of black smoke behind me. Luckily, the only damge was the head gasket, and a slightly warped head, on their own, around £100 to DIY, but I did every other associated thing when it was apart, so nearer £500 total.

If you suspect a head gasket leak, take off the filler cap of the radiator, with the engine running(from cold), and see if there are any bubbles/pressure. When I did mine, the AA man filled it with water, turned over the engine, and it was like a fountain coming out of the filler. Just keep an eye on the water level, but I dont think you should worry. Alan.

If you have mayo in the water filler cap, then that is a bad sign, I think he meant in the oil filler cap, where it usually is found. Alan.

By cleaning the oil filler?

To chemically detect exhaust gas in the coolant, the implement is called a Combustion Leak Tester.

Here is an interesting and highly relevant article:

Correct - apologies for my crap description :-}

Water filler = clean, no sign of oil in the water Oil filler = mayo (just be condensation that isn`t getting burnt off?)

I haven`t checked the top of the rad yet !

I recently purchased a '98 Accent coupe ( mainly due to an excellent suggestion from this newsgroup ) During pre-purchase inspection I noticed the oil filler cap was oozing with mayo, so I paid particular attention to the other signs of HGF, nothing found but still negotiated a discount!

I've run it for a month now with no problems, no water loss, overheating, or oil contamination, hopefully it is just a characteristic of this engine (

Apparently an oil change for a quality oil may help but haven't got round to this yet

Also worth checking the engine breathers are all clear and functioning correctly - including checking any hoses etc for partial blockages.

I got the wrong end of the (dip)stick there. I'd still say that amount of water loss is inconclusive though.