Head gasket seems to have bitten the dust with loads of mayo on the oil filler cap and cold heaters on my '99 Rover 214 workhorse!! Fecking thing. Suppose I was expecting it as it is the good old K series engine!!

Anyone changed a head gasket on one of these before? Is it a tougher job than normal as gonna attempt it at the weekend? Anything I should look out for?

 

Get yourself over to MG - Rover.Org -||- The ultimate site for MG and Rover enthusiasts! there will be loads of advice there

 

Thanks

 

I've heard that the best headgasket on these to get is the Land Rover Freelander one, which is uprated and should last a lot longer than the original part.

My girlfriend has a '99 Rover 214 16v. Hope hers won't be subject to the dreaded headgasket problem!

 

if uve got a rover changing the head gasket should come with the manual lol

 

i had to change my gasket on my metro twice within 2 months, i bought the car noticed cream on the oil cap changed it, sitting in traffic and then a coolant hose broke so it overheated again lol. pretty easy enough to do though luckily

 

luls k-series engines = fail

 

its always best to get the head machined when its off and fit a multilayered gasket and a head saver shim and use new bolts!! have fun

 

Shame the K series has this weakness as it's a good engine - light and tuneable, just not reliable!

 

It is so easy to avoid this. Simply keep an eye on the coolant, regularly and change the header tank cap as this is a main cause of loss. Change the coolant yearly along with the cap and you'll have no probs. The K series has very small water passages and any dirty or **** in the coolant will cause havoc. Other wise it has loads of tuning potential, especially in 1800 guise

 

To be fair, it is ten years old.

 

Problem with these engines mainly is that people don't maintain them properly, the 1800 engine has a relatively small coolant tank (at least the 75/ZT does can't comment on other cars) so any loss of coolant is significant. Just needs to be checked reguarly, but surely you should reguarly check any cars fluids, tyre pressures etc right?

 

Check your inlet manifold whilst it's off, they're plastic and can warp if they get too hot then they spew water out, engine overheats, new head gasket fails ad infinitum

Make sure you have a high ceiling so that you can get the head bolts out

 

Make sure to you get the cylinder head surface inspected and machined true: Otherwise the HG may fail again shortly afterwards.

As very well documented, these engines hate any form of coolant loss/air.

I lost a HG on one due to a very very slight leak on the water pump, which caused an airlock. Bad luck on my part (or s**tty Rover water pump ). The first thing I knew was very slight coolant loss (like 100ml a week) I intially thought manifold o-rings, so changed them (easy job), which didn't fix it, then next thing I know, I check the oil and I have mayo (lots of it), damn.

I would say change the coolant regularly, but seeing doing such a task also causes airlocks, it can risk the HG if your not quick enough to notice (MG-F owners take note ).


Of course, if you live 5mins from work like my mate did with his Rover; when the HG went, he just left it drained. The 5min drive to and from work wasn't enough cause it to overheat. It ran like that for almost a year until the MOT expired

 

It'scrucial the head gets re skimmed after a head gasket failure, it'a amazing how many people complain the gasket goes again son after a failure then when you look into it, the head has not been reskimmed.

 

MGf/TF/s seem to suffer a lot more than 75's/ZT's maybe something to do with how they are driven?

 

It's a **** design as well, to be fair

 

think its to do with the layout i.e. engine at rear radiator at the front. and then the coolant pipes running along the bottom of the car. because there along the bottom if you hit speed bumps etc quite regularly and quite fast you mind end up putting a needle pin sized hole in one of the pipes thus creating a gasket failure. well thats what i think anyway

 

Good point, you might be onto something there

 

Actually, its an excellent design with a major flaw in it which was tragic thing about it, it was lighter, more powerful and more economical than anything at the time, Ford were still sticking old pushrod things in Escorts at the time, a Rover 114 had 104 bhp which wasn't far off a Golf GTI of the era.

But, a miss is as good as a mile so it has gone down in history as being crap, plus there always seems to be a propensity to knock Rover probably more than they actually deserved.

 

An excellent design with a major flaw eh, epic oxymoron mate, but I get your point

 

the best way to avoid hg failure is dont buy a car with a k series engine I have had a few rovers and freelander's but none with the dreded k it was the downfall of the rover group, if it goes take it to the scrap yard and get your £100 and spend the £400 its going to cost you to fix it and buy a astra or a escort etc , I got a zr diesel service it every 10k put fuel in brilliant car