Rob Walker Posted January 25, 2004 Share Posted January 25, 2004 At the Motorsport show PTP assured me that they had no problems related to head gasket failure EVER on their K competition engines and that standard head gasket is more than up to the job. The reason they offered for this surprising statement is that they always use a vacuum pump to draw out all the air after filling and bleeding the coolant system. I would like any feedback from anyone that has tried this and how they did it. I thought of trying a hand vacuum device such as the Mytivac coupled up to the bleed off line which runs from the head to the expansion bottle, any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxy Smith Posted January 25, 2004 Share Posted January 25, 2004 Interesting thought but can't see how this helps, after all a vacuum can't distinguish between air and water. Only way I can see this might help would be if you established a partial vacuum in the dry cooling circuit then used the vacuum to pull in the coolant via a hose drawing coolant from the bottom of a container so that no air is introduced. A bit like bleeding brakes but backwards!! Actually no reason why you could'nt bleed brakes like this. If you are interested in pursuing this I have a retired surgical vacuum pump in my workshop which you are welcome to borrow, not sure if it would be man enough to do the job tho'! Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHRIS CLARK Posted January 25, 2004 Share Posted January 25, 2004 Rob. I was chatting with the workshop manager at my local MG main dealer about my co car (MG ZS 'K') that was beginning to use/lose a bit of water. He said that they use a vacuum to draw water into the system but that it can be used to give a soak test overninght. They take out the spark plugs and pressurise it. Next morning they look for loss over pistons etc which shows head gasket probs etc. Mine was booked in for this, but the h/g failed before this check could take place (on M25 on way back from A/O's meeting). Had done 88,780 miles at the failure point; 23months old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Walker Posted January 25, 2004 Author Share Posted January 25, 2004 Chris I think leaving the pistons pressurised sounds a bit suspect. i would expect the pressure to leak away through the ring gaps after a very short time revealing nothing. When conducting a leakdown test which is similar its usually possible to hear the leakage immediately and pinpoint the cause or simply compare leak down from cylinder to cylinder which should all be the same on a healthy engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom7 Posted January 25, 2004 Share Posted January 25, 2004 This is the now standard practise at MG Rover dealers to fill / refill coolant. I was quoted £30 for the job to be done on my seven. I decided that a bit of patience was cheaper. PTP would use this method as they are MGR dealers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe 90 Posted January 25, 2004 Share Posted January 25, 2004 Standard procedure as recommended by Powertrain. Don't know how you DIY though. Back on the road and now at 100,079 miles. Photos here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elie boone Posted January 25, 2004 Share Posted January 25, 2004 The vacuum filling system works perfect, once the cooling fluid is drained it takes about 5 min to vacuum & refill the system without any airlocks. However i can not see the relation with the filling system and a head gasket faillure other than using the "old" method of reasing the nose can give some temporary higher temp in the engine and i am not talking of overheating that could cause a premature faillure of the cil. head gasket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mav Posted January 25, 2004 Share Posted January 25, 2004 Can;t see how this helps really , and for mg to do it is £30?? I drained, refilled and bled a 7 yesterday in 10 mins. What is the difficulty? and i'm now seemingly £30 better off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Corb Posted January 25, 2004 Share Posted January 25, 2004 Vacuum filling is used on the production line mainly. You draw the whole cooling circuit right down to a vaccum then dump in all the coolant. It goes in in seconds - job done. It guarantees that all air in the cylinder head is purged out prior to filling. Leaving an air pocket in the head will kill the gasket obviously but you need to be a bit lazy to get that on a K4... On a KV6 you cant purge the head any other way which is why dealers all have the vacuum kit now. BC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frying Pan Posted January 25, 2004 Share Posted January 25, 2004 Bob Hope things are going well Car due to go for PBC / SVA on 2nd Feb / 9th Feb, and I won't get it back until March 1st... How do I know if I was lazy and left air pockets????? Cheers Guy See some pictures of the build here. Had my first drive on 19/12/03 at 17.10! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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