Hey all had this as my first car when I was 17 back in 2012. When I bought it, owner mentioned using stop-leak because he reckoned the head gasket was leaking as he noticed there was bit of condensation coming from the exhaust.
After buying we stored it at a mates place and didn't see it until I was close to getting my licence which was like 2013 later so I didn't see the car for almost 2 years hahaha.
Eventually got Rego and roadworthy organised, gave it an oil change and switched coolant over to a compatible one as I was worried all the silicate on the green coolant would erode the head. Had it as my daily for a bit. Bought a major service kit early this year and decided to re-torque head bolts to 70ft-lbs.
My wishful thinking thought it would help it prolong the motors gasket life. I was already losing a little bit of water after long drives and often topped up every cold-start. It was a small leak, i knew a new head gasket will be due soon but I wanted to keep going and see how long it would last.
It wasn't until I reached the 300km mark on my way back from a mates place, I was approaching a roundabout and downshifted to a high-gear (gear 4) by accident thinking I was in gear 2 and after applying some throttle, bit of hesitation and pinging and then misfiring followed on. At the point I knew i pushed it passed its limits and now it's on its last legs, car managed to make it home on 4 cylinders as I later found out in a comp test, it blew ring to ring between cylinder 5 and 6.
Anyway it time to give the car it's long well deserved due repair.
Comp-test results
After taking head off, realized most of the water jackets were leaking on the exhaust side of the cylinders. Didn't know cylinder one had a pretty badly warped gasket ring as well, dry comp test came up at the high 170s as well.
Went and bought a gasket kit from the U.S as it was cheaper than Australia despite our terrible dollar at the moment. Although It disappointing to find out that the gasket I received was different from the photos. Photos showed copper inserts and this one came up without it
Went to my local supplier to buy a headgasket by itself and was surprised to find out that they supply ajusa brands and it was the cheapest one too!! compared to the graphite and composite options!!!!
That's the progress so far might get my hands on a soda blaster to clean the whole head up.
After buying we stored it at a mates place and didn't see it until I was close to getting my licence which was like 2013 later so I didn't see the car for almost 2 years hahaha.
Eventually got Rego and roadworthy organised, gave it an oil change and switched coolant over to a compatible one as I was worried all the silicate on the green coolant would erode the head. Had it as my daily for a bit. Bought a major service kit early this year and decided to re-torque head bolts to 70ft-lbs.
My wishful thinking thought it would help it prolong the motors gasket life. I was already losing a little bit of water after long drives and often topped up every cold-start. It was a small leak, i knew a new head gasket will be due soon but I wanted to keep going and see how long it would last.
It wasn't until I reached the 300km mark on my way back from a mates place, I was approaching a roundabout and downshifted to a high-gear (gear 4) by accident thinking I was in gear 2 and after applying some throttle, bit of hesitation and pinging and then misfiring followed on. At the point I knew i pushed it passed its limits and now it's on its last legs, car managed to make it home on 4 cylinders as I later found out in a comp test, it blew ring to ring between cylinder 5 and 6.
Anyway it time to give the car it's long well deserved due repair.
Comp-test results
After taking head off, realized most of the water jackets were leaking on the exhaust side of the cylinders. Didn't know cylinder one had a pretty badly warped gasket ring as well, dry comp test came up at the high 170s as well.
Went and bought a gasket kit from the U.S as it was cheaper than Australia despite our terrible dollar at the moment. Although It disappointing to find out that the gasket I received was different from the photos. Photos showed copper inserts and this one came up without it
Went to my local supplier to buy a headgasket by itself and was surprised to find out that they supply ajusa brands and it was the cheapest one too!! compared to the graphite and composite options!!!!
That's the progress so far might get my hands on a soda blaster to clean the whole head up.
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