S Series oil leak

[D813YBB]

My S Series 1600 Maestro has an oil leak from around the head gasket at the rear of the engine. The leak has slowly been getting worse for the last year and a half.

My local garage has quoted approximately £400.00 to fix the leak by renewing the head gasket.

After careful consideration I have decided to go ahead with the repair. Before I inform the garage, should there be any other jobs I should get done while the engine is in bits.

The garage says the head will have to be sent away to get skimmed. Is this absolutely necessary?

The garage is quite helpful as they are happy for me to supply parts. I’ve seen a Unipart head gasket set on ebay. What other parts would I need?

[Guest]

The head would not need to be skimmed for an oil leak problem normally, but should be checked to make sure it is flat.

You could get the head sent away and rebuilt, with valve guides checked, valves reseated and head dechoked. If you buy a head set it should come with all the gaskets and seals required, but if you have only had an oil leak problem it would seem a bit pointless.

Would be good to get the cambelt replaced at the same time though

[G Force]

Ye gods £400 for 3 hours labour max, That has got to be a world record. I think I would have a look around for a better deal, or even consider diy. absolutely has to be one of the easiest head gasket to do on any car.

Gary

[D813YBB]

DIY was something I’ve thought about, but

1. I’m not sure if I have all the tools for the job.
2. I couldn’t be certain if I’m putting worn bits that need replacing back in the engine when it gets re-assembled
3. If it ends up dragging on, then I have no car to use for work. I use it every week day and I don’t own another car.

£400 could be seen as a lot in terms of the age, mileage and condition of the car. It might only get through one more winter before rust and old age finish it off!

[G Force]

£400 could be seen as a lot in terms of the age, mileage and condition of the car. It might only get through one more winter before rust and old age finish it off!

If DIY is not an option for you then that is fair enough. I personally think £400 is way too much for the time it would take a competent mechanic to do the job & that is with you supplying the parts.

How sure are you that it is the head gasket leaking as there are no oil pressure galleries at the rear of the head just drains which are less prone to leakage. The cam cover gaskets and cam carrier rtv joint or rear cam seal could be leaking and running down, and these won't get changed on a straight forward head gasket replacement. Pressure / steam cleaning the area may put a different perspective on it. If you don't expect the car to get through another full year you could keep topping up

[D813YBB]

I cleaned the engine with a pressure washer and then a few days later when the drips re-appeared I could see a pool of oil lying on top of the sump at the back of the engine. The mechanics at the garage shone a light down and used a mirror down the back to check where it was coming from. Its too high to be the sump gasket and too low to be anything above the HG. They said it could only be the HG at that height. The top of the engine at the back seems dry.

[G Force]

Fair enough as long as they have properly investigated the source of the leak for you, which seems to be the case. The oil pressure feed to the cam shaft is towards the cambelt end and manifolds side so could be easily be leaking along the length of the block. When you said rear of engine I was taking that to mean the distributor cap end, thats why I thought it may not be simply the head gasket sorry

Still too expensive though

Cheers Gary

[Guest]

Why not have a crack at DIY. I did when I had to fit a new head on my Monty, and i'd never tackled anything like this before and was a bit concened i'd bugger it up but it was really easy in the end.

[SimonR]

The previous S series that I had used to leak oil from the cam covers and very messy it was too. Renewing the cam cover rubber seals did the job. I do find the idea of head gasket leaking only oil a bit strange -in what sort of condition is the coolant in the expansion tank - any oil slicks in it?

[SimonR]

Why not have a crack at DIY. I did when I had to fit a new head on my Monty, and i'd never tackled anything like this before and was a bit concened i'd bugger it up but it was really easy in the end.

Yeah - I've done 5 of these now, the last one on my own outside in gale force winds in the dark!!

It's not all that difficult a job, the only non-standard tools you'll need are:

1 deflector-style torque wrench (with scale to show torque when fitting hte tensioner)
1 Click-type torque wrench for the head bolts
1. 13mm long socket for the headbolts with the thread sticking out the top.

I think that's it.

The first one took my father and me a day and a half to complete, now it takes about 4-5 hours.

[C191JOE]

Sorry folks
the reply before last from Simon R was in fact from me - We'd left the log on in his name from yesterday's enquiries

[D813YBB]

Thanks for the responses.

I’m starting to have second thoughts on the DIY approach, but first I’ll have further investigation to try to see exactly where the leak is coming from. I wouldn’t want to do all this work and find out afterwards the leak was elsewhere. I’ll try and get a photo tonight.

Simon, the coolant doesn’t seem to be contaminated, although it was only changed over Easter when I put a new radiator on.

[G Force]

Hi, oil leaks from the oil feed part of the head gasket are common enough, I did not mean to cloudy the waters here. The oil usually runs down the block under the exhaust manifold at the cambelt end, and you usually find that oil also runs along the front of the block and becomes visibilly wet around the altenator bracket.

Cheers Gary

[Chris Y]

The first one took my father and me a day and a half to complete, now it takes about 4-5 hours.

Slacker! The last S-series head gasket job I did took an hour, before loading the car up on the trailer then belting down to Donington park for the car's first race meeting that year!

[SimonR]

Slacker! The last S-series head gasket job I did took an hour, before loading the car up on the trailer then belting down to Donington park for the car's first race meeting that year!

SHOW-OFF!!! ;-)