Head gasket gone? Engine rebuilder recommendations in Melbourne?

[RubAVeeDubDub]

Hi all,

So it seems that my engine's head may have carked it after I lost all my coolant recently. Filled with water today and on its first start, when the engine reached full temp, I found water in two of my spark plugs (two nearest the throttle body) evaporating water and gurgling away. Spark plugs have been removed and they are wet. That being said, oil is not milky and looks fine. (little burnt but nothing alarming). There was no usual noises or temp rises while it was running.

I lost my coolant three weeks ago I was nearing home when the car started to shudder around the 2000-3000rpm mark. Power was definitely down until I reached past 5000rpm. Got it home and noticed smoke. Opened up the engine and there was two hoses split and spewing out coolant.

After inspection, I also discovered that the back t-pieces were crusty & brittle (inside was rusty) and the small one near the reservoir snapped in four places. I know that these cars aren't the best in aussie weather conditions so I was recommended to have some stainless steel T-pieces made up from Enzed. (Factory t-pieces vs Custom ones (significantly bigger) )

To make them fit, hose lengths had to be adjusted. (End result here )
I replaced this hose which connects the heater core to the cylinder head with a hose that didn't have different sized ends (one size generic heater hose). That hose had different sized ends along with the t-piece also having different sized outlets. Maybe that's whyy now be why I have this issue. Expensive mistake?

My first thoughts are a head gasket issue. Water in a combustion chamber is never a good thing. And getting it out is the next problem because water doesn't compress and the manifold is so damn high that it couldn't even spit out if I crank the bastard.

Anyone think it's not a head gasket?

I can remove engines/gearboxes etc, so I'm thinking of removing it and then sending it off for an engine rebuild?

Any ideas/ball park figures for cost? I'm obviously going to have to also budget for a timing chain, water pump, pulleys etc. If the heads are getting redone/rehoned, is there any else I can have done relatively cheaply I can have to the engine to improve it?

Any help is heaps appreciated. ****ting bricks here right now as I prepare for the worst
Looks like I'm going to be badly off budget for my house deposit too

Thanks.

[quattro5v]

Pardon my ignorance but what year is the car?

Were there any fumes coming out of the coolant overflow bottle?

Might not be as bad as you think.

[RubAVeeDubDub]

Pardon my ignorance but what year is the car?

Were there any fumes coming out of the coolant overflow bottle?

Might not be as bad as you think.

No problems there Thanks heaps for responding!
As per my sig - it's a 2001 Bora 4-motion with the 2.8L V6 engine. I think it's the engine without the individual coil pack.

I don't remember any fumes coming out of the coolant reservoir.
The reservoir in itself is pretty ikkey but that's about it. Plenty of rust came out as I was flushing it

Only fumes were from the engine missing a PCV hose as it is split.

Gimme some good new please

[h100vw]

Fix the pipework, you have to do that anyway. Then re-assess the headgasket situation.

Gavin

[FactoryFit]

remove leads/coils and spark plugs, Put a sheet of white paper over the spark plug holes, crank the engine over while holding the paper down and see if water/coolant splatters the paper, if it does………… (just a quick but maybe not the most accurate test but worth a go)

My guess is the system over pressurised and blew the brittle hoses.

Phil.

[RubAVeeDubDub]

Just to clarify, the back coolant hoses have already been replaced with generic heater hoses and custom made stainless steel t-pieces. They are hooked up and the only place fluid was running out of the car is the bottom radiator hose. This was because I disconnected it to flush out the old coolant running tap water through the coolant reservoir.

My concern is that running a non-genuine coolant hose setup and replacing the oddly sized (one end smaller than the other) coolant hose from the inlet manifold to the odd size t-piece near the heater core has caused some pressure issues and busted the head gasket or something more sinister.

Currently I can see no blown hoses.

[h100vw]

From what you have said, I am not convinced there's a problem to solve.

Do the fans cut in if you leave it idle long enough?

Just to clarify, the back coolant hoses have already been replaced with generic heater hoses and custom made stainless steel t-pieces. They are hooked up and the only place fluid was running out of the car is the bottom radiator hose. This was because I disconnected it to flush out the old coolant running tap water through the coolant reservoir.

My concern is that running a non-genuine coolant hose setup and replacing the oddly sized (one end smaller than the other) coolant hose from the inlet manifold to the odd size t-piece near the heater core has caused some pressure issues and busted the head gasket or something more sinister.

Currently I can see no blown hoses.

[RubAVeeDubDub]

From what you have said, I am not convinced there's a problem to solve.

I've found water (should be coolant) in two of my cylinders! I haven't yet filled the cooling system with coolant, but I had filled it with tap water to flush out the old gunk that was in the cooling system.

Halfway through the process, at 90degrees temp, I notice steam coming from a spark plug. I look at No.1 & 2 from the throttle body area, and there was a good amount of water in two of the spark plug tubes with the plug & lead evaporating the water that has made it's way into the compression chamber.

I'm not an auto engineer, but I'm pretty sure that water has no place in the chamber. This usually occurs if there's a crack in the head and/or a head gasket is gone. This is my concern.

[h100vw]

Is there water on the pistons? You have taken out the plugs and seen the water there? or was there water by the sparkplugs which entered the cylinder when you took them out?

I am not clear on exactly what you are trying to say.

I look at No.1 & 2 from the throttle body area, and there was a good amount of water in two of the spark plug tubes with the plug & lead evaporating the water that has made it's way into the compression chamber.

[RubAVeeDubDub]

Is there water on the pistons? You have taken out the plugs and seen the water there? or was there water by the sparkplugs which entered the cylinder when you took them out?

I am not clear on exactly what you are trying to say.

I look at No.1 & 2 from the throttle body area, and there was a good amount of water in two of the spark plug tubes with the plug & lead evaporating the water that has made it's way into the compression chamber.

I think water may now have made its way onto the pistons because I foolishly removed the spark plug & lead when I seen the water.

So basically when I ran the engine with the hose being fed into the coolant reservoir, I noticed smoke/steam coming from the engine, checked the source and found it to be water in the spark plug tube (lead & plug still connected). Pulled out the spark plug lead and unscrewed the plug in panic. Only later did I realise that I've ended up pouring water into the compression chamber.

The reason for this thread is because I'm unsure how the water got into the spark plug hole. I'm assuming something like a failing head gasket must've caused the issue?

Haven't turned the engine back on yet because I wasn't sure if I should. I just checked the oil for any signs of the water mixing with it.

Should I be worried that the engine is buggered or just find a good way to remove the water from the chamber and it should be right.

When the engine was running there was a very slight tap noise that would go off every so often but the engine was running without a PCV hose (snapped in 3 places) so I thought maybe that was the cause? That being said, the noise was definitely not cyclic like a misfire - fairly random.

[wai]

With alloy heads, running without coolant is likely to mean that the cylinder head has ended up distorted. They tend not to return to the same state when cooled down after an overheating episode, particularly with no coolant.

So just replacing the head gasket might not rectify things. You may have to take a skim of the cylinder head surface and then need an oversize gasket otherwise you will have a higher compression ratio.

The simple way to check for cylinder head flatness used to be to apply blue liquid (like blue ink) to the surface, let it dry and then rub it on a surface plate (precision machined flat plate) and see where there are high/low spots.

[Bug_racer]

was there ever green coolant in the engine ?

[RubAVeeDubDub]

Looks like a bit of a false alarm. I feel like a real numpty. Embarrassing!!

Managed to see inside the chamber using a torch and there's no water in sight.

I think the water that was in the plug holes was from the bottle of distilled water that I rested on the intake manifold. It was being used to flush out the heater core.

Put the plugs and leads back on, started the car and the engine sounds fine. No catastrophic noises. I'll post up some vids soon for you all to review if you don't mind

Otherwise, filled the car with 8Ls of Penrite G12++ coolant and she's seems to be running fine. I'll be taking her off the jacks and for a quick spin around the neighborhood later this afternoon.

So far so good it seems.