Practically Classics Forum

The only HGs that can be left completely alone are the modern ones which have resin in them that sets when the engine is run up dry after fitting. That's all you do with those, then let the engine cool, add coolant and ignore the HG for the next however many miles.
Some gaskets for older engines can be bought in this variety and those, even the ones in the Stanpart/Saab slants and V8s, are fit and forget as they even prevent the heads shuffling about on their 45 degree studs, but any of the traditional gaskets such as old stock Payen ones, must be fitted at a certain figure, then the coolant should be added before the engine is run up, then they are let alone to cool and the torque taken down the next stage and run up again then after a certain interval, typically a few hundred miles but if I know for certain that an HG isn't a superior, modern one with the resin layer then regardless of what it's fitted to, it'll be retorqued in sequence at each 12,000 mile service, 3000 for the slants with their angled clamping forces that can, and otherwise will cause the head surface to take on a curve from top to bottom across the head if they're not retorqued at each service. The other advantage of retorquing with aluminium heads is that the procedure keeps the studs from seizing. ACU, my Ice blue Dolomatic, went straight from 30k to well over 250k with the head needing no attention and, when the car's next owner paid me to strip and check the engine for him at 252k, the 45 degree studs came out as though they'd only been fitted that morning, the head was flat and that engine has now covered 311k, still without the head having been skimmed since I bought ACU with its failed HG at the usual 30k that they tend to go before HGF strikes, in this case because the car was a "Tropical" spec one serviced by Cypriot workshop staff more used to tightening down in a hatch pattern than a straight line.

O series are every bit as strong as the slants - more so in some ways - but won't have any need to be retorqued more than once after the initial settling has taken place or at all once the resin - if a modern gasket is fitted - has set. Os are, however, extremely likely to warp their heads when they're removed regardless of whether they'd first overheated as their conventional, hatch pattern tightening sequence has the rather odd habit of tensioning one corner of the head and that corner invariably resettles once the head comes off, this because the water jacket is shallower and the surrounding metal thinner there.

All being well, car is off up to my brother's tomorrow to get the head sorted out and the oil changed. It's a bit frustrating here at the moment as I have space but can't use it. We have a shared driveway and our hard standing is presently occupied by my HLS Princess which is still on an axle stand, stuffed full of spares and has only half an engine as its head gasket has blown and is awaiting repair. I would ask the neighbour if I could use his hard standing for a couple of hours, but from past experience it will end up with him nagging me to move my car 1 hour in to proceedings and trying to make me work faster by 'helping'. Not really an option. My only other flat space is the street but another neighbour is pretty militant about the Council bylaw that we're not allowed to work on cars in the street - apparently not even to change tyres or refresh fluids! - after an incident a decade or more ago when someone accidentally torched their car when welding it on the street.

So I have to limp my car up the estate to my brother's house and work on it there. Which means timing it when he's around so I don't block him in his own garage and he can lend a hand when I inevitably need two pairs. Under normal circumstances, this would already be fixed. I can't WAIT to move house next year.

That sounds a lot like the problems I had when living at my parents (I just counted how many years ago that was and now feel old)
From memory you are allowed to work on your daily driver on the street in front of your house but you are not allowed to work on cars for reward. There are also regulations about spilt oil which I am straining to remember.
If you have the option of a driveway close by then that is definitely the way to go I had the problem that the shared drive was always full of my dads cars so I always had to work on the street. One old battle axe came up to me giving me a lecture about working on "the lords day" when I was replacing wheel cylinders at 11am Christmas morning one year. (My dad gave them to me for Christmas, I wasn't hanging around!)

Interesting Terry - I had the opposite problem. When I lived with the folks, there was always loads of room for car repair but, when away from home, I had to work on the street! I suppose having a vicar as a father gave us large houses and gardens (and plenty of garage space) and living in the country meant that the vicarages were even larger (one even had a field!).

I fear the problem has a lot to do with people not servicing their own cars - using a garage and then believing that the ten year old car is too old to repair, so buying a new(er) one - and letting the garage ruin that too!

I read somewhere that the Prima (Montego etc diesel) engine had problems with the back corner (manifold side?) water galleries corroding and subsequent blowing of HGs, but that 50-50 antifreeze was the way to avoid the problem. The Prima was based on the 'O'-series, so perhaps it inherited the problem from the petrol engine? It may be worth trying 50-50 antifreeze to reduce the chance of it happening again.

It's one of those "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" choices as the 50/50 mix will keep it from freezing at lower temperatures but doesn't cool as effectively as a 30% mix since it's the water content that transfers most of the heat away from the internal surfaces of the water jacket. In practice, I think you'd be hard pushed to notice the slight difference in running temperatures in the UK, especially in Winter.

Either way, please consider using MPG (Mono propylene glycol) instead of MEG coolant. It's 100% compatible but MEG has cost millions of animals' lives over the years and the bloke who's just been sent down for two years for murdering this creature, who had managed eleven years with me before the sick ****er got his hands on her back in May 2012:


...as well as fourteen similar cats from the same three villages, three dogs, nine rabbits and a fancy rat called Neville, whose eight year old owner used to take the friendly rodent everywhere with her. We saw to it that the psycho had several bones broken before his committal hearing but, with hindsight, this was ill judged because it ensured that he's got it cushy in hospital where he won't be revenge-bummed in the showers by a big bloke called Mary!

I often say this about computers (and have done it once or twice, it is IMMENSELY satisfying).
Sometimes, the best programming tool is a lump hammer.

I've not long done a coolant change, but I don't know what type I used beyond it being 'the blue stuff' so you can imagine I wasn't too thrilled about it dumping all of that out. The 4 litres of oil I bought isn't enough either, I actually need 6 for an oil change due to being gearbox-in-sump, glad I checked the book for that one. I need to buy another 6 litres of really cheap oil for the flush and a further 2 litres of the ordinary not-too-fancy oil for the proper change. After a few miles I'll do a further oil change for better quality oil again.

Dad reckons with all these tantrums she's having, Princess is a very apt name lately.

I think I'd stick a can or two of engine oil flush in rather than using a lot of new oil. Some are pretty good - and somewhat cheaper than a gallon or two of 20W-50!

It also means that you only have six or seven litres of waste oil to get rid of - which is less likely to strange looks at the recycling place (try taking 12 gallons of creamy white tractor gearbox oil and you'll see what I mean . Similarly, you are supposed to take old antifreeze-loaded coolant there rather than let it go down the drain. I did that one day and the bloke looked at me as if I was mad!

He may have been right.

If the coolant was either MEG or OAT then yes, it should go to the local authority disposal facility but as Propylene glycol is harmless - indeed it's often used in food production - that may safely and with a clear conscience be disposed of via surface drains or flushed down the soil drain via the bog. Actually, it tastes quite pleasant.

JPB wrote:...but as Propylene glycol is harmless - indeed it's often used in food production - that may safely and with a clear conscience be disposed of via surface drains or flushed down the soil drain via the bog. Actually, it tastes quite pleasant.

E1520 if you want to check the label. Also used a lot in toiletries, either to dissolve stuff or as a humectant (Like Glycerin but much less sticky)

Gylcerin tastes better