Drip, drip, drip.......

[westcoaster]

Just got my 1.6TD running in my suzuki samurai. This was an engine out of a car I bought with 383,000 on the chassis (not much blow by, next to no oil cming out of the tube)

When I got it it was low on coolant and there was oil in the coolant. I just found out where that was leaking from....

The front of the block behind the timing belt has a nice drip drip dribble on the exhaust manifold side of the engine.
Best case, shot head gasket. then there is cracked head or block.

So, what's involved with changing the head gasket?
What can I expect if I were to get a shop to do it?

[85gti]

If you put the motor in a suzuki a head gasket is not out of your ability.  It is a matter of unbolting a bunch of stuff, then take the head to a machine shop or a qualified mechanic to see if it is warped or cracked (cracks between the valves is okay though)  Then buy a gasket, clean up all of the surfaces and bolt it back together.  You are "supposed" to buy new head bolts as well but after seeing td's put back together with "used" bolts they seem to be fine and new bolts aren't dirt cheap so save yourself the cash and get this headgasket done.  Cheers mate  

[westcoaster]

Apologies, I should be more clear.

I have a drip, drip, dribble of coolant coming out from behind the timing belt cover beside the exhaust manifold (assuming head gasket). The oil leak in the vicinity I think may be coming from the cam shaft seal and is more a buildup of sluge than anything flowing.


Can't really quantify how much oil. I dropped this out when I pulled the motor. What period of time it was in there I have no idea. When I was going through the adapting process I did change the oil cooler for a different one that was good. In the ~400km I have been driving this I don't have a thick slick on the top of my coolant. I did try cleaning things out with washing soda before topping up again, however, that certainly wasn't a good/perfect clean job so a bit of sheen was to be expected.

[westcoaster]

If you put the motor in a suzuki a head gasket is not out of your ability.  It is a matter of unbolting a bunch of stuff, then take the head to a machine shop or a qualified mechanic to see if it is warped or cracked (cracks between the valves is okay though)  Then buy a gasket, clean up all of the surfaces and bolt it back together.  You are "supposed" to buy new head bolts as well but after seeing td's put back together with "used" bolts they seem to be fine and new bolts aren't dirt cheap so save yourself the cash and get this headgasket done.  Cheers mate  

This is the kind of "overview" I was looking for.

1. start pulling crap off
2. pull head making note of the notches (or in my case two holes) in the head gasket.
3. take head to a machine shop to be pressure tested and checked for straight.
4.ASSuming all is well with the head, slap the gasket down and install new bolts.
5. bolt the crap back on that I pulled off in step one.
6. Find a way of timing this thing.
7. take it for a test drive....