Its foc'ing boiled over...

[philshaq]

hey guys. Thanks for the the comments. I took the tank off, and rotated it round so I could run the engine and watch the thermostat and coolant pipes a bit easier.


I put water into the rad cap and expansion tank as recommended in the haynes manual fastened the rad cap back down and ran the engine until warm, there wasn't any water coming from any where obvious, both pipes in and out of the thermostat housing warmed up as did all pipes out of the radiator. Ran for 15 min and there wasn't any water coming from anywhere, and the fan didn't kick in...


There was, however crap in the water (thats a technical term!) which I've tried to get photos off in the two pictures below. Could that be some kind of additive that was in the water rather than bits of head gasket?


Another thing I noticed is that its blowing white smoke out of the exhaust when I rev it up, although when I stopped it to put it back together and then started again to put it away, no white smoke! there was quite a bit of moisture coming out of the drain hole on the exhaust to start with so could it be once that had burned off, no more white smoke?


I spoke to the local garage and they think head gasket has gone, and have said it would cost between 600 and 1000 to sort it!


I really don't want it to be the head gasket, I need to run it daily and can't afford that amount when I only bought it 3 months ago!


Any thoughts on what else I could be checking? and how big a job would replacing the head gasket be / is it worth doing or would an engine swap be a better idea?


Thanks guys