jon Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 Having a bit of a problem with my acclaim, its showing some of the symptoms of head gasket faliure (magarine like deposit under the oil cap and similar but browner stuff in the radiator cap), but still runs superbly with no sign of power loss or overheating, and i'm wondering if it really is the gasket, its not been using large amounts of oil and water. is there something else that could cause these symptoms, or a definite way of testing the gasket without too much dismantling?thanks jon Quote
ferny Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 The filler caps mayonnaise really easily and take a while to clear themselves. Have a look through the cap and see what the oil resting by the valves looks like. If it's clear, it's fine.You might be relatively lucky with the water. If it's been neglected in the past you might be seeing signs of old crap and gunk floating around. Only suggestion is to keep an eye on it and hope for the best. Quote
Tim_343 Posted February 23, 2012 Posted February 23, 2012 has the car been used on lots of short journeys ? if so the cap is the coldest place on the engine and if it doent get warm (as it will take the longest to get warm) collects deposits the mimic that of a gone gasket have no idea why but just doe lots off good runs warming ever orofise of the engine and an oil change at the original service intervals or every year if its not used much and you will be fine :) Quote
jon Posted March 1, 2012 Author Posted March 1, 2012 did a 300ish mile run yesterday and the problem seems to have dissapeared, thanks for your advice, the car only usually does short runs, so i will make the effort to get a regular longer journey in.jon Quote
Toledo Man Posted March 2, 2012 Posted March 2, 2012 Try an "Italian tune-up" to clear out the crap. Quote
jon Posted March 30, 2013 Author Posted March 30, 2013 Turns out the gasket had gone, finally realised when I did my regular levels check and noticed the oil level had gone up! turned out to have been blowing between the cylinder and water jacket on no 2 cylinder. Managed to get a head set from a suziki cheaply from my local motor factors and a head skim for �25 from a local engineer. While I was at it I changed the cambelt and water pump too (had to take the belt off to do the head and it seemed foolhardy to not replace it with new when rebuilding). Whole job was much easier and cheaper than I had imagined, Worst bit was scraping off all the gasket remnants that seemed welded to the block, paranoid about scraping too hard and damaging the face of it. Performance is much improved (though even with a blown gasket it ran well and was nippy enough to keep up with all the local traffic). Still getting plenty of mayonnaise though, despite several oil/water flushes and a thorough cleanout of all the pipes, guess thats just a characteristic of this engine.whats an italian tune up by the way? Cant afford to fit ferrari bits and fiat is a swear word round my way. Quote
thescrapman Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 4204 wrote:whats an italian tune up by the way? Cant afford to fit ferrari bits and fiat is a swear word round my way.Drive it like an Italian would, flat out, redline in every gear, thrash it mercilessly.:-) Quote
ferny Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 Excessive use of the horn and smoking is optional. ;) Quote
jon Posted April 3, 2013 Author Posted April 3, 2013 ok, but what should I do that's different from normal? Quote
Toledo Man Posted April 3, 2013 Posted April 3, 2013 The "Italin tune-up" as I know it is where you change up just before the red line. Don't do it until the engine is up to temerature (NEVER thrash a cold engine). It shouldn't be necessary with your car. I remember when I did the head gasket on Blue steam was still coming out of the exhaust when I first started it up but after a while it cleared. You'll still get mayo if the engine doesn't get up to temperature so do a long journey if you can. Quote
jon Posted April 3, 2013 Author Posted April 3, 2013 Its my daily driver, 4 miles each way commute for split shifts. Probably explains why it never gets the chance to warm up properly. Regular oil changes and flushes are keeping the mayo at manageable levels at the mo, a good long drive sounds more fun though. Will try and get out more to more distant places to give it a good run in future.Thanks for all your advice.Jon Quote
ferny Posted April 4, 2013 Posted April 4, 2013 A 200 mile drive in mine didn't clear the mayonnaise. ;)Need a good clean out of all pipes etc before you do it. Quote
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