Looks like my head gasket has gone 🙁

Anyone got any idea how much its likely to cost? If i do get it done is it likely to go again? I know its a common promblem with rovers.

Is it worth getting it done, or should i put the money towards a new car?

🙁

Thanks

What again ?
Thats the third time in 3 mins.

It's a Rover 1.4 K series. Of course it's likely to do it again. Get it all repaired properly, skimmed etc. and it might be alright. On the other hand, these do tend to warp their heads to such an extent that they can't be skimmed back, and there's a shortage of good second hand heads.

I'd be inclined to scrap it and buy something that doesn't mind owners not checking the water on a regular basis. Like anything that doesn't have a K-series engine.

depends how old the car is?

personally after having a rover 214si as a first car….once the heads gone its time to walk away!
but then a 25 might be different.

paid around £250 for new head/skimming etc

k-series had a bad rep for blowing head gaskets, compounded by Rover's being bought by old people who beleived engines were powered by witchcraft and hairdressers buying MG Fs. Neither demographic was likely to check the engine over once in a while.

Don't try and drive it with a blown head gasket, it just gets worse. How much is the car worth, its often cheeper to just buy another and pay £20 to transfer the insurance.

IIRC its the gasket itself that made of cheese, not the engine, once its repaired it should be fine, or at least thats what I've heard about F and TFs.

hgf is as a result of overheating. likely there's a leak somewhere. it may not seem significant now, but fixing the hg by itself will not be the full extent of the repair, but worst case you're probably looking at a new radiator too.
the 1.4 should be the least likely of the lot to suffer hgf, not that that is much consolation, granted. 🙂
the 'k' was quite a sophisticated engine when it came out…
if you do get it fixed, take any 'odd' behaviour of the temp gauge as absolutely critical. the engine can overheat very quickly, loose coolant, then there is no conductor of heat to the temperature sensor and the indicated temperature drops to something approaching normal. this is the main reason so many of them fail so catastrophically.

ohh and engines are rarerly beyond saving. Rumour has it that back in the turbo days of F1 BMW used cylinder blocks that were from production cars that had donme 200,000 miles, and were then left in the rain outside the factory where workers would piss on them to make use there were no streses left in the metal!

hgf is as a result of overheating.

Not necessarily with the K-Series. The original gaskets used were of a poor design and easily degraded which let coolant into the engine, and oil into the cooling system. The updated gasket more or less eliminate the common problems although those who didn't fully address any damage done by the initial HGF saw further failures as a result of warped heads.

Another factor to consider is the original dowels used to locate the head onto the block were plastic and these snapped easily allowing the head to move on the block thus leading to gasket failure and more oil/ water interfaces. Replacement dowels were steel.

The other problems that affected the gasket in the MGF and Elise such as corrosion of the underbody cooling pipes and the distance of the rad to the thermostat, were not an issue in the front engined application of the K. The poor design of the gasket was more than enough.

BB, what you say is absolutely true about the gasket and dowels, but i had figured that the fact it was a 1.4 ( more surface area to work with ), and that the car is still running now ( so likely a later one ), would mean it less likely to be affected by these issues, and more likely to have had the later kit. cannot be taken for granted of course.

i had discounted issues such as rivets rubbing away at coolant pipes in the sills of early 'sleazes' as we are talking about a 25! 🙂

There are a few faults with the K – the major one is that they tend to have low capacity cooling systems, so a small quantity of lost coolant becomes a big problem. The gaskets might be pap, but the fact is that once the HG has gone, you've probably done the head, and they're in very short supply.

If you can't get a head at a reasonable price, then the rest of the engine (block etc) is scrap, no matter how good it is.

By the time you're forking out for a new head or skim, you'll want a new rad, stat, waterpump and coolant, adding an extra £100-£150 to the bill. Otherwise you'll never be sure that your just replaced HG isn't going to blow again.

There's a definate owner issue too – K-series are fitted to lots of very high performance cars, and a check up here and there goes a long way, to the point that they have a very good rep in the tuning world. That said, a lot of useless duffers also buy Hondas, never check a thing, and not a lot goes wrong…

I was just about to write what BB said. So "as above"!

Neighbour just had hers done, £500 all in at a local garage.

And second the 'care' issue – her idea of a service was an oil and filter every two years…

Its a 54 reg and 1.6 SI.

I have always kept the water levels topped up and regularly check the oil, just checked it today and all the oil has turned to cream 🙁

Cheers

Perhaps not quite scrap material yet. I'd fix it and flog it though. Headgaskets on Rovers don't always stay fixed.