I dont get it. head gasket sets are abour £40, and I cant see fitting them is exactly hard

I'm just wondering why a car with a fucked head gasket goes for so much less?

Its because unless you know what youre doing, youre looking at a raping of £250+ to get someone to do it

And your average jo/joleen dont want to spend that sort of money of their "old banger" so take that misfortune and turn it upside down to make the best thing out of it, sell their car for a pitance, and put that pitance towards a nice new car - ofetn a punto that will only fall apart round the corner leaving them wishing the`yd fixed their banger lmao

hah,

so is there any chance of damage? I'm guessing no

Yeah, you often have to have the head skimmed, because it sort of warps in places, and the new gasket doesnt sit flat/flush

If youre planning on changing one, just use a metal ruler on its edge (or something else thats perfectly flat/straight) and go around the head making sure you cant see any light under it if you know what i mean? kind of hard to describe in text

yeah I get you! lol

Wont cost much to get a head skimmed though will it

haven't a clue dude, never had one done

Does my head in. I've seen more MK2/F's in breakers,with nothing wrong but an oily alternator,than I've been able to keep count of. Most would've been worth 400 with the work done,and with a new cambelt,exhaust studs and skim,its still a days work and less than a ton. I've asked breakers to contact me when they get one in,but they never do - they're all very crush-happy these days!

the main thing is...wen i had my rover ...after reseacherin the gasket busts even afta u buy a new 1

My head skim cost £25 in the end, I'm told thats a reasonably cheap price. We'll find out if its good enough when it goes on the car but tey only wanted £50 to fully strip, clean, skim, and rebuild the head with new oil seals. If thats the case, its not exactly an expensive job to change the headgasket, all it takes is a little time and patience.

the main thing is...wen i had my rover ...after reseacherin the gasket busts even afta u buy a new 1

That's because up until very recently the head gaskets have been supplied with faults in them that caused them to go in the first place, and also the head itself can crack due to poor casting. Shame, because other than the head gasket problems, the K-series is virtually bullet proof... even standard they don't fall apart at 9k rpm.

Plus, a head gasket on a K-series motor is a BASTARD of a job

If you buy a car for £400 and all you do is get in and drive. Other than that you have no idea what your doing if someone tells you your head gasket its gone and its going to cost £350 to fix then I can see why you'd want to sack it off.

because your average person will take a car into a garage to get bulbs replaced or pay halfords to fit windscreen wipers. A head gasket swap is waaaaaaaaay out of their league. It's not exactly the simplest of things to do anyway, easy to totaly fuck the car up if you dont know what you're doing.

Whilst servicing my car a couple of weekends ago, i noticed my head gasket was leaking water into one of the cylinders, a quick call to GSF and a head gasket kit that comes with everything you need, is only £25 and i can get the head skimmed whilst i wait for £30. With me being a technician it aint gonna be that much of harder job for me, but someone with no knowledge or experience its gonna be fairly complex.

I can take some pics and post them up whilst i am doing mine if it would help?

can someone explain what exactly a head skim is?

i have a vague idea but think i may be getting it confused with something else

easy to totaly fuck the car up if you dont know what you're doing.

can someone explain what exactly a head skim is?

i have a vague idea but think i may be getting it confused with something else

Its litterally skimming the head taking off a tiny amount of metal to make it flat and with no indentations etc etc

err becuase people cant afford to get it fixed and dont no how to do it themselves, pretty obvious innit?

easy to totaly fuck the car up if you dont know what you're doing.

Lol, guesing you have previous experience with that?

Whilst servicing my car a couple of weekends ago, i noticed my head gasket was leaking water into one of the cylinders, a quick call to GSF and a head gasket kit that comes with everything you need, is only £25 and i can get the head skimmed whilst i wait for £30. With me being a technician it aint gonna be that much of harder job for me, but someone with no knowledge or experience its gonna be fairly complex.

I can take some pics and post them up whilst i am doing mine if it would help?

yeah that would make a useful guide, stick it in the FAQ once its finished!

err becuase people cant afford to get it fixed and dont no how to do it themselves, pretty obvious innit?

That what I thought

easy to totaly fuck the car up if you dont know what you're doing.

Lol, guesing you have previous experience with that?

i set the timing a tooth out after changing the water pump and bent the valves, fitted a second hand head that turned out to be warped, so got the other head sorted with new valves and a skim, fitted new cam belt and head gasket, seemed fine till about 30 mins use the cam belt slipped and bent the valves again. sold it for £150, car owed me well over a grand

You'd set it more than a tooth out,to have bent the valves.

A blown head gasket doesn't always mean 'just' a blown head gasket. When my head gasket went it had also cracked the head to fuck, just had to get another head and get that one re-con'd though. With most people knowing absolutely nothing about even the most basic of mechanics it's a lot less hassle to just sell the car on and get whatever they can for it.

Sal. x

A blown head gasket doesn't always mean 'just' a blown head gasket. When my head gasket went it had also cracked the head to fuck, just had to get another head and get that one re-con'd though. With most people knowing absolutely nothing about even the most basic of mechanics it's a lot less hassle to just sell the car on and get whatever they can for it.

Sal. x

Agreed - Damage and hence final cost is usually unknown until the head is removed. So faced with an initial large labour bill to remove the head to find out the final cost many people just throw in the towel

I need to change mine this week or next week, but I'm more tempted to persuade my mate to bring me to the breakers to pick up a Golf 1.4 ABD and drop it in instead.... Easy swap I'm told.

....makes me wonder what your drunken wonderments are like but, last nite me and my mate found ourselves Googling "Gay seahorses named Francis", "giant fossils 12ft tall", and various unnecessary YouTube footage including diet-coke and mentos.... dangerous...

...as if that wasnt bad we were drunk 4 weeks ago and decided we would run a marathon next year.... and neither of us can run even 1/4 of a marathon!!

Back to the topic, you could be lucky and get it before the block warps, that way some new oil and filter and a gasket for £60, or else a re-skim and lots of wallet raping!!

last nite me and my mate found ourselves Googling "Gay seahorses named Francis", "giant fossils 12ft tall", and various unnecessary YouTube footage including diet-coke and mentos.... dangerous...

What were you drunk on? rocket fuel?

Thats the most random thing I've ever read