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MG MGF Technical - New HG, new Inlet m. gkt, but STILL water in cyl 4. ?

Morning to you all

Looks like my F'll be missing the summer again.

HG replaced, inlet manifold gasket replaced, but still water is getting into cylinder 4.

Looks bad eh?

Any simple ideas before I have to get the engine to pieces to get things pressure checked etc. etc.?

I can see £££££'s disappearing very soon.

:o(

Julian
Julian

This may be a daft question but are you sure its water,is it possibly petrol.
Joe

Not seen it myself, but I *think* I remember them saying "blah blah.. antifreeze all over blah..".

And it fills up whilst its standing, not running. A LOT of water you see.

nasty feeling that a new head or something will be in order. any loan sharks out there?
Julian

Julian,
Is it the garage who did the job that are telling you this? if so, then they 'ain't done it properly - maybe not skimmed the head (if warped) before refitting?

Does not necessarily mean a new head...
Paul Lane

No. there's history to it.

All work being done by my brother & co. so no worries there.

Head was skimmed. fair bit of corrosion present.

HG replaced 1st, no joy, then inlet mfd gasket, no joy, and thats where we are now.

and of course, the sun is out.
Julian

Julian, if the inlet gasket or fitting of it is not at fault then it is possible that the HG was damaged whilst fitting ,easy to do due to the restricted space.In any event looks as though the head may have to be taken off again :-(
Mike.
PS did you pressure test the head before re-fitting?
mike

With a 'fair bit of corrosion present' was the head skim significant. In any case was each through bolt checked for working length before being refitted?

A skimmed head and a bolt at the end of or beyond, acceptable tolerance results in the bolt simply reaching the bind point, where the bolt starts to stretch, and imparts next to no clamping load to hold the head to the block.

In addition was each liner equaly level on the top face?

Rog
Roger Parker

Roger
The bolts were indeed new only 7k ago (& 7 months) but were checked, yes.

also, the visible damage on the hg was minimal (although the breakage was obvious by the water out of place...) so maybe this was secondary (i.e. it went after and as a result of the initial problems?).

now having the manifold off and skimmed (probably).

anyway - all work stops as family matters have got in the way. oh well - its keeping the mileage down...

(and I have a luvvly calibra to play with instead. Hmmm)
Julian

I would be worrying about the liners. Aparantly they can be displaced whilst the head is off and are poorly located anyway.
I think you may need someone with real experience of this engine to get it sorted. You don't want to keep messing around 'cos it may cost you more, and more and more....
T Green

Thanks T
I think we're this option will be pretty close if its not resolved in the next attempt (or so!). It taking along time too - and this is because of other work commitments, not through the actual work on the car, which seems daft. Elapsed time = 6 weeks+, time on car, 2 days?!!!
Julian

This thread was discussed between 15/05/2002 and 20/05/2002

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