Head Gasket? Gutted

[BongoBuyer]

Driving on the M5, engine slows down. Pull over and smoke pours out the coolant tank - I've either left the cap off or it came off.

RAC come along, he says he'll bleed it for me and check. He pours water in the engine somewhere (I'm a novice) and starts the engine, and the water comes out where the coolant cap goes.

Turns it off and goes 'yeah bad news mate thats seriously damaged, likely head gasket, and because you have two cylinders they'll have to take the whole engine out to find the issue'.

They're flatbedding it home. Is it dead? I want to fix it, only has 97,000 miles and no rust concerns.

[BongoBuyer]

RAC report says 'found with engine running water is coming out of expansion tank, likely head gasket issue'.

[gilly99]

Is it a diesel? They are very sensitive to overheating. 'Head Gasket' is a coverall statement and likely some background issue, split hose, coolant leak or something much worse. I would not rely on the RAC assessment - get a bongo specialist to look at it.

[BongoBuyer]

It's a V6 petrol. They're going to tow it to my nearest bongo specialist and I'll park it out there overnight until tomorrow when hopefully they can look at it.

I'm just praying it's not insane money to fix.

[gilly99]

Here's hoping.... Can't see a failure where the expansion tank cap fails, so if you left it off and the if you caught it in time (or maybe all the engine temperature sensors starting triggering the ECU to reduce power?), you might be lucky.

RAC man may not have helped by pouring in cold water, hopefully engine was cold by then?

Not familiar with V6 petrol, but thinks it's quite similar in having an alloy cylinder head. The diesels have a real crap temp. gauge in the dash (not sensitive enough, so no real warning or accurate temp indication), hence everyone fits coolant alarms.

[g8dhe]

All the Bongo types have the same dumbed down temp. gauge, its just the diesel that can get to higher temperatures more easily and hence suffer more damage. On a V6 I have had the top hose blow but managed about a mile before I could get out of traffic on the outskirts of London, no damage done and a temporary fix to get me up to Yorkshire and a visit to BongoSpares to sort the hoses out.

[BongoBuyer]

She's in with ADS bongo specialists now. They reckon it could be anything, could be a whole new engine, or new cylinders. They're going to pressure test and let me know.

[Bob]

Let’s hope it’s not too bad.

[BongoBuyer]

It's bad.

Failed the compression tests with all sorts. It massively overheated.

Brand new engine, looking at over 3 grand.

Told them to take a look at the rust situation underneath and let me know. If the rust is in a crap condition, we'll have to let her go.

[Bob]

So sorry to hear this, but good sense to look at rust.

[g8dhe]

Might be worth checking round the usual suppliers for a second hand engine, mine seized 3 years or so ago and was about to scrap it when a complete engine came up at around £1000, its since been installed and still running well with no further problems. See the thread here https://igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/vie ... 40#p718740