All Torque

A mate in work is selling an Astra 1.6 8v it`s a 99 model with about 80k on the clock, he wants £1000 for it if anyone from work buys it, otherwise its going in the Adtrader for £1500 in a few weeks time. Me and another mate had a quick look around it today and we noticed a thick mayo substance in the oil filler cap but other than that it looks and drives fine. Now I know this could either be the head gasket or condensation. The car only does relatively short journeys and very rarely goes above 60mph, a good long blast down the motorway would probably do it the world of good.
I`m thinking of getting this for the Mrs who also only does stop start short journeys, thats if whats in the cap is condensation, is the a way of telling if it is the head gasket and roughly how much to get it changed if it is.

johnnyroper

by sound of it only doing short trips and not fully heating up would say condensation
when head gaskets go on 8 valve normally puts coolant in to no 4 cylinder rather than in oil
worse case if gasket gone parts are cheap and 8 valve very easy to work on 2 hour job if know what doing

hamyam

a garage can do a check to see if the head gasket has gone by testing if theres any exhaust gases in the coolant

johnnyroper

if head gasket gone and caused mayo in filler cap it would be coolant entering sump and not exhaust gas getting in coolant so garage doing block test would probably prove inconclusive

Dream Weaver

I would say its normal for this time of year, depending how the oil filler system works on those engines.

My 205 with rebuilt engine has enough mayo to make a good buttie, but thats mainly due to the remote oil filler cap, cold weather and short journeys, the HG is fine, and engine is fine.

If the HG had gone, the coolant would be going down all the time, so worth checking that if possible?

gingerboy

As above sounds like emulsification caused by short runs. Used to be fairly common on the 8v OHC vauxhall engines.

Worth spending £25 - £50 getting it checked over though, even if the headgasket has gone they are a piece of p**s to do if you are handy with a set of spanners and can read a haynes manual. Headgasket by a garage with a head skim new belt and tensioners and you are probably looking at £300 - £400 knowing what garages charge these days - if you know a mate or have afamily friend that is up to speed with mechanical work they shoul be able to fettle it for less than £150 easily.

Ask him the question about what type of use the car has, is it short runs 80% + of the time? If so probably nothing to worry about. A decent engine flush, remove and clean the engine breather pipes, new oil filler cap, fresh oil and filter and it should be ok if everything else checks out OK.

Regards

GB

All Torque

Yes it is mainly short runs of about 10 miles in the morning to a meeting point where I pick him up then 10 miles back home in the evening. He has another car for evening use. Last week we used the Astra for the work run so a one way journey for it was about 30 ish miles where I noticed the mayo on the 1st day, Friday though I looked again and was not as bad as it was on the Tuesday when I first looked it over. The oil on the dipstick seems clean with no sign of water on that.

gingerboy

Sounds like just the short runs causing it then if it looks like it is improving with increased mileage.

One thing to note if he drives it like miss daisy is that a car driven that way that is then suddenly given a good ragging to "clear it out" can result in glazed cylinder bores. If it were me I would get it on a few decent long runs once you are confident in it's ability.

Gradually introduce it to a world with slightly more zest and I'm sure everything will be fine.

Good luck

GB

Carl2

Tell him it's the signs of the head gasket going and get a discount. Then take it for a good long drive and hope it clears