samurai head gasket ?

[ben.williamson]

hi i have just bought a samurai off ebay 1300
basicly there is a substance in the oil filler cap
but not allways

symptoms include when i picked it up the water level was higher than the maximum in the coolant res evior

now after the week end (picked it up sat drove it home 150 miles and went to kirton lindsey on sunday aprox 100 mile round trip + offroading for 5 hours + a bit of driving round etc 3 miles maybe) the water level has dropped to just below to full mark

bering in mind the sj is lifted 2'' and has 31 tyres it went evry were up the steepest hills etc so maybe some coolant has been lost due to this overflowing maybe

cheers ben

ps i have lookd at lots of forums and can't find anything

also if the head gasket is gone how difficult is it do ? whats involved cheers ben  :)

[Evilgoat]

Hi Ben

If its overfilled its quite possible it's blown it out the expansion tank.

If the substance is like a greyish goo its possibly water in the oil, and thus, head gasket. Best thing would be to clear it out so the cap is claen, take it for a spin and see if you get more. Condensation can form in the rocker cover, it shouldnt, but it can.

If its like a Vit, then both manifolds off, fuel pump, timing covers and belt (mark them before you take it apart!) then off with the head. New Gasket looks to be about £17 ish and a set with all the associated gaskets comes in at about £50 (head, rocker, fuel pump, intake, exhaust, possibly carb).

If you replace the exhaust and it has the nasty heat sheilds make sure you put a tiny hole in the sheilds else the plug recesses fill up with water.

Have done it on a vit in a day :)

[ben.williamson]

when itst there its like say moyo or salad cream but its only there when youve been driving for 10mins turn engine off wait two or three then look if you look when cold nothing or when hot nothing

cheers ben

[Evilgoat]

Get yourself a compression tester and take a look. Disconnect the LT wire from the coil and crank it over checking each cylinder in turn. A problem in a cylinder will be indicated by a bad reading. If you have the haynes book of lie it does say how to interpret the results. Low compression can be caused by a few things but its a good indicator that the head needs to come off.

It does sound like you are getting water in the oil which is a head gasket or possibly other damage to the head/waterways.

[ben.williamson]

seams to run perfect

what would be involved with doing head gasket

what would the effect be of just using it offroad do you think i don't use it every day

[Evilgoat]

seams to run perfect

what would be involved with doing head gasket

what would the effect be of just using it offroad do you think i don't use it every day

Before any of this do a compression test and verify that anything is wrong in the cylinders. It will eventually start to die and act up and you can make things worse running on a blown gasket. Depends on what abuse it gets but it will die.

Firstly. Get a book of lies, the hardest and most potentially damaging bit is the timing belt, get that wrong and your engine is potentially toast. If you arent happy about that dont try. on the other hand, mark the belt, pully and the dizzy reletive to the head and you'll be OK. Use a good set of tools and you'll need a torque wrench and the booke of lies again for torques, or ask us niceley. Keep everything clean and label wires and hoses and please please remeber to disconnect the battery. Take your time and recheck everything and you'll be fine.

From memory on a Vitara CFi and going on looking at my own carb one that I have to do this weekend it should be something along the lines of removing the filter, carb and intake manifold. Mark the plug leads and pull them away, mrk the dizzy mount on the mount and the cylinder head so it goes back in exactly the same place then have that off. Then undo the downpipe and take off the exhaust manifold. Remove the fuel feeds to the fuel pump and clamp them off, remove the fuel pump and gasket. Take the timing ocver off and remove the belt, slacken the tensioner and it should slide off. Not having the rad there will make this easier and you need to drain the coolant anyway. Remove any remaining hoses and wiring, LABEL THEM and then off with the rocker cover if it isnt already. Undo the eight bolts in the correct order (again haynes manual or someone here can give you that) and then tap it till it liftfs off and off you go. Ideally you should have the head skimmed and check the blocks surfaces are good etc.

You'll see a blown gasket quite quickly, be careful with the head/block mating surfaces. Then it all goes back together the same way it came apart. Make sure everything is torqued, right things to the right place etc. Ideally the head bolts should go into the same holes they came from or be new.

While its all apart consider cleaning it up if it needs it, decarbonising the vlaves, pistons and head, look for damage to the valves, pistons and head, things like excess amounts of soot and carbon may mean you are running rich, oil in the bores in any quantity is bad too. Check the valves are round and centered. I've seen two vits eat the exhaust valves.

Its potentially a huge job and I wouldnt suggest it as a first time job, butthe haynes manual seems to be ok on the procedure and if you take your time, keep things clean and use the right tools it shouldnt be a problem. Do an oil change right after and the bit about taking it for a spin then re-torquing the heads is important. Also on one we took the opertunity to get the head refurbished and flowed before refitting it.

Both of my rebuilds are comming up on 40K since the work was done and fingers crossed, no issues.

I cant stress enough the clean bit though, jetwash the engine bay first and be careful. A speck of grit can wreak havoc with the bores and potentially write the engine off.

[ben.williamson]

realistly is there any thing i could do to check this first, some one once said ''lime water'' i don't know, to check head

as the local garage i use are asking £30 to pressure test it  

the car runs as sweet as a nut and dosent get hot either temp gauge (or heater inside car) it always sits about 1/3 on temp gauge

i have done a lot of my own macanics but its hard work and i can't really be bothered how much do you recon a job like this would cost

compared to an engine swap / 1600 16v vitara engine or any better sugestions

cheers ben

[fudge]

Steady on a bit....

Some vehicles get milky deposits as a matter of course, I don't think the Zuke is one of them, but how ong has the ar stood for before you bought it?

I would change the oil and filter, flush it through before draining with an engine flush and see if it still does it....

You can also ask a garage to test for carbon on the water, you put some funny blue liquid in a tube and hold it in the water tank if there is carbon it turns green / yellow if it stays blue the gasket is fine....

smart cars oils caps go milky when the breather is blocked.... merc Vito's too.... I'd test for carbon first!

[rhino-force]

Hi there

The goo on the filler cap is not unusual and i would'nt worry to much. Just keep an eye on the temp gauge and water levels mainly in the rad its self. Pretty sure its fine.


Neil@ rhino-force

[generation-x]

:troll: soz to hijack ur thread  neil do you have a vit engine floating about m8y

simon

[Evilgoat]

:troll: soz to hijack ur thread  neil do you have a vit engine floating about m8y

simon

Yeah, fuel pump needed here. What the other guys say though, make sure it is the head gasket before you do it. Mine is beyond doubt as I have mayo for oil, sludge for water and about half power. Still planning on compression testing it before she comes apart though.

And the glod of natiness it blew out the breather..... well, nasty :)

[ben.williamson]

Steady on a bit....

Some vehicles get milky deposits as a matter of course, I don't think the Zuke is one of them, but how ong has the ar stood for before you bought it?

I would change the oil and filter, flush it through before draining with an engine flush and see if it still does it....

You can also ask a garage to test for carbon on the water, you put some funny blue liquid in a tube and hold it in the water tank if there is carbon it turns green / yellow if it stays blue the gasket is fine....

smart cars oils caps go milky when the breather is blocked.... merc Vito's too.... I'd test for carbon first!

i'm not rushing into any thing

the water in the rad is clean water very clean water no signs there

cheers be

[ben.williamson]

well i have flushed and chaged the oil

i think the head gasket is going, there is a salad cream effect on the inside of the oil filler cap

also i think it uses water not sure how much because i dont use the thing every day but the water level seams to change when i changed the oil the water around 10mm higher before i ran the flush through for 30mins of use 15mins to get the engine warm and 15 mins of flush when the oil was changed the water level had dropped a little

has any one used k-seal

 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CarGo-Seal-Up-Radiator-Head-gasket-Sealer-Stop-Leak_W0QQitemZ270076563482QQihZ017QQcategoryZ28641QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

the zuki dosn't get hot , or play up in any other ways

i can't see it being the head gasket bering in mind i drove it home 15 miles and round www.korc.co.uk kirton lindsey for a full day and reved it up to about 4,500 revs up hills round kirton, kirton is about 45 miles from here

ps i have never had a headgasket problem before!!

any one with previous such problems greatly apreasiated its a 93 samurai 1300

cheers ben

[ben.williamson]

just like to add the salad cream is there just now the vehical hasn't been used all weekend

[ben.williamson]

one more thing the heater dosn't work very well all pipes going to it are hotish but the heater is only every luke warm is it not possible the heater is empty / airlocked and that is where a very small ammount of water is going