Guess what - HGF

I noticed a wee bit of steam coming out of my exhausts today, when the engine was good and warm. With a sinking feeling, I lifted the boot lid, and saw that the header tank was totally opaque - normally (and I check it very regularly) it's very clean and clear, with a good level of the pink stuff. Now it's dark brown, and you can't see where the level is.

So I let her cool down, and took the cap off - there's a certain amount of gunge on the bottom of it too

Pretty sure it's the head gasket? The car's 25 years old, but only 25k on the clock - but there you are.

Would members agree with my diagnosis? Any way of knowing if I've warped the head etc, or caught it in time?

 

I'll have to book her in with somebody anyway - not the sort of job I could tackle.

 

Well you've answered your own question really by saying you'll have to get someone to do any work required.
But please make sure that whoever you get to do the job is up to speed with K series engines.

Hi Hogweed. Its certainly worth getting it checked. As D4KGP has rightly said plus the received wisdom of others; it is imperative it to take it to one of the reccommended specialists who know the K series inside out.

From everything I have read it wont cost any more than using a knockabout corner garage but the job will be done right by experts and there is no risk it will need to be repeated again in a few months due to a mechanic failing to measure the cylinder liner height so picking the wrong gasket.

Looking at your picture, it doesn't look promising!
There is no way of really diagnosing a warped head without removing it and putting a straight edge across it, you can use a compression test, a cylinder leak down test, a sniff test or a coolant system pressure test to diagnose a failed head gasket, and they can indicate other possible combustion chamber problems such as a cracked or warped head, a unseated, cracked or porous cylinder liner, but the only way to know how bad the problem is, will require removing the head to be sure.

Thanks everybody. Yes just trying to track a specialist down here in NI is the problem - we did have an excellent guy who was a magician with all things MGR, but he lost interest a couple of years ago and just packed the whole thing in. Sadly he can't recommend anybody else either, so it may be a struggle. I have one lead to follow up - will post any updates here.

The guy is about 15 miles away - I'm assuming it wouldn't be a great plan to drive the car to him

Update - managed to get hold of him. He's done dozens of these in his long career (ex main MGR dealer mechanic here) and can do it in February hopefully. Will post updates...

Good news! Fixed in time for a Spring outing.

Thats really good news