What now? Noticed it was overheating while pootling to the shops and found the water cap has oil on it.
This is obviously the head gasket and A BAD THING! Just done over 70k, so atleast it's one of the reliable rubbish engines 🙁 Gone within miles of when everyone says they do.

So I guess it's a full rebuild or new engine. Anyone had any good or bad experiences with either option?
How far 'could' I drive it before it melts? Need to get to work!

Cheers…

i had a rover 400 1.6, head gasket went at 65k, when it goes do not drive it any further or you will completely nacker it, problem is a lot of those lumps were fitted with tin gaskets which corrode some at less than 30k so consider yourself lucky,when you get it replaced make sure you get a high quality fibre gasket,again do not drive it when it's gone or you may well nacker the valves and possibly warp the block which will require a strip down,skim and rebuild that won't be cheap, i was quoted up to £800 as a worst case scenario fortunatly for me only the gasket needed replacing £200.

Gasket is just a little more than a cambelt change (belt off, head off, gasket on, new belt, job done) on most engines.

BUT if you stopped straight away when you noticed the overheating, and didn't drive any further it might be that simple, otherwise be prepared for a big bill.

Taxi for work, and probably not worth repairing?

What car and age?

Hmm this happened to me too on friday!!
awaiting what mecahnic says but sounds like the same problem.cars only worth £500

53 plate MG ZS 120+. Was given the car by the inlaws and it's been cheap to run in the last 2 years (apart from getting me my first points for speeding in 15 years!)…but this could be a bugger. When you're wondering whether there is enough money in the account for £10 of petrol then this is a big problem 🙁

Anyone got any lightish 26" wheels suitable for commuting going free/very cheap?

Head off job, skim head, new gasket set includes new stretch bolts, thicker gasket etc etc. Change oil and flush and clean block head. Cost me £400 by a rover specialist who had done this job many times. 1.8 engine prone to this. Plastic pins hold the original gasket in place. These soften and move with time allowing the gasket to move, hence failure. Do it sooner than later, if the head fails and the engine overheats its a much bigger job. This engine holds very little spare water, once it goes its difficult to catch before any damage is done. Great cars though and the engine is superb once the plastic pins are replaced in the kit with steel ones!

K series engine, well known for likeing water in its oil, used in the freelander, caterham 7 and lotus elise.

The rover was and still is a fantastic cheap car, let down by the engine.

The rover was and still is a fantastic cheap car, let down by the engine.

To be fair, it's a very good engine let down by the gasket, the dowls that hold it in place and the beancounters than ordered their fitment. A strong engine (esp. the bottom end) and incredibly advanced for its time…

To be fair, it's a very good engine let down by the gasket, the dowls that hold it in place and the beancounters than ordered their fitment. A strong engine (esp. the bottom end) and incredibly advanced for its time…

Absolutely true unfortunately. The original K series engines had no such issues until there was a 'cost down' exercise…
One of those "Doh" moments in life.

Interesting. I thought the problem was that it was originally a 1.1 or 1.4 (distant memories of the wife's 1.4 metro – great engine) that wasn't fully developed when it was expanded to 1.8? Hence the head gasket problems. Apaprently the new chinese owners of MG have changed this and are using a modified cooling system K series in their new cars?

There are loads of theories. One I've read is that there's not a great deal of water in a K-series cooling system, so you only have to lose a little to start having big problems. Which would also account for the fact that K's tend to be reliable in Lotus and Caterham applications but not in Rover / MG ones – your Lotus / Caterham owner is more likely to actually check there's water in the car.

the 1.8 and 1.6's are derived from the 1.4, simply bored out to achieve the bigger cc, they retained the original cooling system hence why the 1.8 is the popular one for going pop. oddly its the 1.8k fitted in the landrover freelander that goes the most and landrover made their own kit to rectify the problem.
2004 mk2's had a new gasket fitted to rectify the hgf problem, my mk 2 1.8 is going fine so far fingers crossed.
guess which german car maker introduced the notorious 'new' gaskets into powertrains engine lineup.
i think lotus and caterham removed the head on the vast majority of the k series engines they used and replaced it with a modified one.

If only it was that simple. Simply skimming the head is absolutely not a guaranteed fix and often does not address the primary reason for failure, but that is all most garages will do. Head gasket problems on the K series can be caused by liner heights being incorrect, uneven or the liners not being square in the block, any of these will cause head gasket failures which are really not gasket issues. Oil in the water is also unusual on the K series, usually the gasket fails at the fire ring/coolant interface which causes coolant pressurisation issues and shortly thereafter overheating through loss of coolant. You should not drive it unless you intend to replace the engine, repeated overheating will change the metallic structure of the head surface which will make is softer, and will cause a repeat failure. The head should be hardness tested and peen shot prior to being skimmed to minimise any porosity issues also, again most people don't do this . . . lastly the steel dowels should always be used, but this is a secondary issue in most failures . . .
The K is a great engine and can be made very robust, but most people don't know how to do that . . . the data above comes from smart engineers building high power, reliable, competition engines based on the K . . . not your average garage, many of which don't have any engineers or real skills these days, sadly . . .

i believe they called it 'grenade' tuning on unmodified k engines, eventually they explode….hence heavy modification prior to being put into lotus's etc…

No, 99% of K series in Lotus Elise applications are completely standard, out of the crate from Rover, in fact the (badly) tuned ones that Lotus sold (S160, 190bhp VHPD) are even worse than the standard rover ones . . . Caterham modify more engines (for power) but the modify brand new engines which are yet to develop problems like liner regression . . . it's also fair to say that Caterhams typically don't get used like normal cars so you see less failures . . . caterham K series racing engines (where you would see these issues) are hand built by people like Minister racing . . . so they are 'more' reliable . . . but given the use case very few engines can handle prolonged racing use without some kind of failure . . .

http://www.ptp-ltd.co.uk/shop/365_8/1/special_offers/mls_(multi_layer_steel)_head_gasket_for_elise_and_exige.htm?

Popped one of those in mine last year..

Some good info.
Hope the OP doesn't mind if i post a question while we're on the subject.

I have a 2001 Peugeot Partner 2.0 HDI with 107k on the clock. I have the dreaded oil in the coolant. The thing that's confusing me is the van never over heats whatsoever. I put about a pint of coolant in it every 500-600 miles. This has been like this for about 15 months (14k) and doesn't get any worse. In fact if i top the coolant right up it tends to lose it quickly. So i run it low of coolant,to the point that the light is on when i start the van and goes out once pressure is up (when i get down the road about a mile) I have been told the gasket has gone,but am reluctant to have it done when i can run it fine as is it. Not sure how long it will last though. Engine is quality besdies this.

What to do ? Carry on or get it done ? Is it the gasket that's gone ?

Thanks RR

Go for it RR, I'm thoroughly demoralised now, cos looks like all options are going to hit the wallet hard and I'm skint 🙁
Knew I should have sold the MG and kept my beloved Seicento Sporting!
(Just popped a Wanted in the classifieds for some wheels…)

Chin up Lister.

Any ideas chaps on post above (3up) ?

Sorry to be a bug but i'm not purchasing lovely new bike wheels and parts on the basis of not knowing what will happen with the van !

Thanks

If you cannot do it yourself . . . get the cheapest skim and gasket change you can find and flog it . . .

$0.02

Fd

Hmm mines has gone the same as listers by the looks..
BMW 3 series 1.6 R reg,will i be looking at alot more on these?prone to be more troubles after its been done?

Another problem with the K series is the fact that it states in the service schedule that you must replace the coolant regularly. This is to stop corrosion between the liner and the engine block, loosening the liner and causing failure to the gasket when it moves. Every service Rover and subsequently other garages did, not one of them changed the coolant when it should have been done, hardly the engines fault. This engine when it was made was the most fuel efficient, torquey, powerful motor you could get. Shame it was let down by cost cutting for the sake of two plastic dowels. This is why we don't make cars anymore!

Rant Over. ( I still would have a 200vi, great Q car)