Dangerwheels

Sorry to hear about this - just been through all this hoo-hah myself after my HG failed. As has been said, it was the biggest "get to know your seven" experience i have ever done (more so than any track day). One tip i can pass over to you - i found my a right pain in the posterior filling the coolant - tried all the suggestions i found on blatchat. The best thing i did was buy a bleed tee (some still on sale on ebay, and fitted up by the heater, which made refilling it a doddle. Once one of these is fitted, it will also ensure you can check and refill the levels easily and frequently.... which was the cause of mine in the first place (never checked the coolant level up at the heater - never thought i had to!). Hope this helps and good luck with the HG replacement.

Done. Fixed. Phew. Hurrah! Fitting the bleed tee into the system by the heater coolant inlet/outlet has made the world of difference to ensuring enough coolant is in the system. I'm sure the system is now taking in more than the 5.1l of coolant (i've topped up/lost so much coolant in tinkering i've lost count of actually how much is in the system), but the tee has allowed me to ensure easily that enough coolant is in the system. Had to top up a few times through the bleed tee following short runs in the car, but its now steadily holding temperature at 85-90 deg, i had a lovely run around some of the local roads and it behaved just like it ought to. Its like having a new car all over again :) If anyone experiences any overheating issues i'd highly recommend fitting a tee-piece into the coolant system. If nothing else, it only cost a couple of pound for the parts - including an additional pair of hose clips, and makes it so quick and easy to see and diagnose the coolant levels. Cheers very much everyone for all your assistance and comments, the whole head gasket change has been a great learning experience and i feel like i know an awful lot more about whats going on under the engine cover than ever before.

Thanks for this tip - you were quite right. I warmed the engine up, then let it it cool down. About an hour later i checked the coolant level in the top of the radiator - it had dropped by almost an inch. Air pockets. So i topped up and repeated the process - only a small air pocket this time. But i also noticed that the heater would not pump out any hot air, which i am taking to be an air pocket at the top of the system too. And after all my attempts to raise the nose as high as possible too during the refill. D'oh. I have just purchased a Coolant bleed tee which will hopefully arrive amongst the xmas post next week ( if anyone still requires one, the ebay sale is eBay Coolant Bleed Tee). Once that is fitted i will try again. With the heater and the extra piping for the LowFlying coolant mod the system must now take more than the 5.1l of coolant !

You still haven't said how you know it's overheating. I have both coolant and oil temperature sensors on my seven, and can flick between the two readings from the dash. When the coolant needle reading heads past 80Deg and doesn't stop its not good news I'm thankful it had this sensor - i could have blown it again after the rebuild. That would have been *really* embarassing. When i stopped the engine last week after it got hot, i did check the bleed screw on the top of the rad - coolant immediately bubbled out after only a turn of the screw. Thats what makes me believe the top of the rad contains coolant and not an air pocket (which as you state would alter the temp reading for the fan as it would be sitting in a warm/hot air bubble and not in fluid). I also half undid the expansion bottle cap, and could hear the coolant system depressurise (if thats any help). An interesting idea on checking the water pump - I'll be taking a look on my day off later this week :) Thanks.

As mentioned already, even if your temp sender is duff, it won't cause overheating. That will only be caused by a) lack of coolant somewhere, b) water-pump not pumping enough volume of coolant, c) radiator fan not coming on, d) thermostat not opening, e) engine putting out too much heat due to running lean or being mis-timed. a) is a possibility. I made the K-series coolant mods as per the Sept LF issue, and managed to get 5.1l of coolant in the system (also by raising the nose). I'm reasonably confident there are no major airlocks. b) is a distinct possibility - i'll be taking the pump off on Thurs and will see if the spindle is operating correctly. c) As the bottom rad hose was cool, either the Rad is doing its job, or theres no hot coolant being pumped into the Rad (as a direct consequence of (b)), so until i've verified the water pump i won't know whether the switch is bust. d) Got a new thermostat now. Have to assume thats working (though can check if necessary) otherwise i've been sold a dud. e) once (B) © and (d) are verified, if its still overheating, i'll look into this one. Currently i'm hopeful that the water pump is faulty. I'm not sure how cool the coolant exiting the rad should get normally, but it was barely warm (may just have been my cold hands!). If hot coolant isn't being pumped around the system, then the coolant in the rad will never get hot enough for the fan to come on in the first place. This may point to localised heating (i.e. in the engine) thus the pump may well be at fault.

The bottom radiator hose was very cool. The inlet hose to the top of the radiator was reasonably hot, the external water rail feeding along to the top of the radiator was hotter (though it is thin metal rather than thicker hosing, so will heat up differently to the coolant temperature inside in the short time the engine was started). I did drive the car down to the bottom of the road and back (300m), on this fine cold frosty day some cool air will have passed across the radiator, which could account for the temperature of the bottom hose. Though the potential lack of circulating coolant could cause this too. I'll try the free check as suggested (thanks ECR) and see what happens. If no good i'll be checking the water pump during the week.

Thanks chaps. I'll take the water pump off later this week (I have a couple of days off work which is somewhat handy) and see if its operational.

Hi folks, FIrstly, many apologies for the lack of updates with my HG change- all your input has been most helpful. Progress has unfortunately been painfully slow due to a lack of time, but i've finally completed the HG replacement. Not wishing to risk warping, i took the head down to a trusted garage to have it skimmed. HG changes are no-where near as painful as i expected, i'm glad i've made the effort. WIth a bit of research, a rover k series haynes manual and some additional you-tube assistance (removing and refitting a cam belt on the k), the only heart stopping moment i had was manually trying to crank the engine over once back together...unsuccessfully...before realising i had left the engine in-gear. D'oh. Anyhow, with engine now back in business, I now know why the head gasket blew in the first place - the engine is overheating ☹️. DVA Dave previously mentioned to me that head gaskets don't normally blow of their own accord. How right he was. The HG was a consequence of something else (as of yet unidentified) failing in the system. So, i now have a k-series i can run for a few minutes, then once its heated up, it keeps heating up and i have to turn the engine off (before the new HG blows again). Some notes: - Have noticed this effect twice since the Head was put back together. The first time i filled up the coolant system with water only, and ran the car. The engine started to overheat. I emptied the coolant system, replaced the thermostat with a new one (thought it might be faulty, but removing the housing and trying to remove the thermostat showed an age problem - the fixings on the old thermostat housing were duff, so i had to replace the housing too). Then refilled the system with coolant. The result was unfortunately the same - engine overheating. - whilst the engine was in bits, i modified the coolant system as per the article "Modifying the K-series coolant circuit" in the September 2012 LowFlying article (pages 12-13). This changes the flow of water out of hte expansion bottle into the open side of the thermostat housing, not the closed side (when cold). - raised the nose of the car whilst filling up. 5.1 litres of coolant into the system. - there are no leaks in the coolant system. - The radiator fan has not been coming on when the engine heats up... - but the radiator fan does work - i just bridged the fan connections and it whirred into life. - Whilst hot, i half unscrewed the coolant tank cap - the system audibly de-pressurised. I don't believe there are any air locks in the system, especially as i put in a full 5.1 litres of coolant, and have modified the system as per LF magazines recommendation. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about what i should check next? My next train of thought is the the engine temperature senders - On the exhaust side there are two sensors that are screwed into the external water rail. Presumably one is the engine temperature sensor, the other i'm not sure about. I have never replaced either of these. Is this a next sensible check to do? Many thanks Col

Found a really good online document for the make-up of the K-series (non-VVC and VVC with VVC) engines - K-Series Engine Overhaul Manual It has some great detailed schematics of the engine. Not sure how good the instructions are yet though (theres plenty to read!), and given how good Haynes are i am still looking to get a 1.6 K-series edition. Do people still recommend Red Line Components as the best place to source seven-related parts (specifically engine components)?

Top Lurking BTW Dangerwheels Dangerwheels... saving electrons... but attempting to make a good dent in the worlds fossil fuel resources 😬

Thanks for the responses. To reply to the queries: Stationary M25 Traveller: In the photos it looks like a large gap between head and block at that point ?? Are the bolts tight .... or broken ? I'll check the gap along the length of the engine gasket this evening and see if its consistent. Certainly in my hands the engine block has never been to pieces (sump not withstanding), and i would imagine its unusual for a bolt to break when in situ? I've owned the car for 4 years now and never lost any coolant liquid out of the engine (even with the energetic driving that accompanies all seven driving 😬). Bricol: On removing the head, it was obvious what had failed - the red elastomer of the gasket had always been close to the waterway edges and had failed, I guess due to age and the continued vertical differential movement between block and head around the waterways. This does sound a very similar issue to the one i've just experienced - especially if you haven't seen my photos yet. I didn't realised that an elastomer was used with(as?) the gasket here - could be the likely culprit. Is there a water rail through this part of the engine ? This could tie in with no fluid being present in the oil -especially if the gasket has broken outwards and not inwards. sforshaw: I had the same happen on our old Freelander - the rubber seal around the edge of the gasket was forced out at the front (transverse install so mid way along the water rail) and it was blowing steam out like the Flying Scotsman! Blown head gasket. If like mine, your good fortune may be that the coolant has exited out of the side and not into the oil - any emulsified oil on the inside of the filler cap or the dip stick? Again, sounds very similar. And no emulsified oil under the filler cap or on the dip stick (thankfully!) sforshaw: Drop the coolant and replace the head gasket with the latest type (and steel dowels), and if the oil has any sign of coolant in it swap the oil as well. I suspect if you nursed it when the problem appeared you won't have any further damage (roll on the scare mongers ). Is this definitely the head gasket that has gone? Or is it some other gasket i've not heard of? Before i go out and buy completely the wrong set of replacement parts... I think i need to buy myself a Rover K-Series haynes manual too (ebay here i come). If i do end up dismantelling the engine myself to fix (I prefer this option and i don't have to rush to get it done - going to be a good learning experience mind you as i've not done this before) are there any other parts that i'll need to get spares for? Also, are there any special tools that i'll need outside of sockets, torque wrenches, and the Profanisaurus ? At rebuild time, how bad/easy is it to set all the timing etc is it likely to work "out of the block", so to speak, or is this a job for a garage once the engine is back in one piece again?

Hi, I had an unfortunate journey into work this morning - making the most of the beatiful weather i took the seven on my (short) 10 mile journey drive in to the office. Noticing that the engine temperature was starting to rise high, i slow to 50mph on a dual carriage way to see how the temperature was and hope get to work (was only a mile away), but then when i pulled up at a set of cross roads, steam started pouring out of the grill holes in the bonnet. Eek. By this point the engine temperature was almost in the red but not quite - reading about 119.5. Normally sits at 80 but i expect it to go up to 100 when driven hard (note: not driven hard today). So I pulled into a side lane immediately and turned the engine off. ONce the steam had subsided (only a few seconds) i took the bonnet off (underside had been steam-cleaned!). Coolant was spraying out of the near side of the engine - (eek again) - exhaust manifold side, from the front. The car was towed back home immedately and its been sat in the garage all day. When i got in from work this evening, I took the front bodywork off the car. (Unsurprisingly) the coolant tank was empty. So i filled it up with water; once the water had worked its way down the pipes (it actually didn't take too much filling - only 1.5-2 litres of water before the reservoir tank was full), it started leaking out of the side of the engine again (same spot) under the power of gravity. Not good. I've taken some photos of the guilty part of the engine- Photos can be found here Main problem area: You'll see a small red "tongue" sticking out which i'm guessing is the gasket? This is exactly where the water was spraying from. I can't say i've noticed it before, so can't say whether its always been sticking out like this or not. I've marked the guilty area of the engine on the images. Is this the head gasket gone? Or is this another gasket? The gasket runs under the exhaust manifold fitting. Of note, there is no coolant in the oil (oil level is perfect with no water residue present on the dip stick or directly under the filler cap). The car is a 1.6 K-series supersport, 2001. 35K on the clock. In the last 8/9 months its only been driven a handful of times and has spent most of its time in my garage (disgraceful i know!). In the last 3 years its done about 5 track days (so had some occasional hard fun driving) with a full oil/sump baffle foam change less than 12 months ago. I''m hoping this is something i might be able to tackle myself (or as much as possible). Any online diagnosis and advise of how to tackle this would be massively appreciated. Many thanks Col