I have a horrible feeling my T4 van's head gasket is toast

[mangocrazy]

I hope it works for you, if it does it's best to look at it as a temporary fix.

Yeah, if it gets me back to Sheffield it's definitely done its job. Once I'm home I have time to weigh up my options (probably a new van).

[Sadlonelygit]

Today my bottle of K-Seal Ultimate Permanent Head Gasket Repair™ finally arrived in France. It says it's guaranteed, althought guaranteed for what they neglect to say. Anyway, what's to lose?

The instructions on the bottle say to put the contents of the bottle into the radiator or top hose, not the header tank, so the front of the van had to come off. Then I syringed the contents of the header tank out, followed by the contents of the top hose, as that was easiest to get at. All in all I syringed between 2 and 2.5 litres of coolant out, which should give enough space to dump in the contents of the bottle without any overflow.

So time to put on my Big Boy Bravery pants on and do the deed...

This is the stuff, by the way: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256556665182

Posh mustard powder!

[mangocrazy]

It's had three heat cycles, each a day apart where I left it idling for 30 minutes to ensure it came fully up to temperature. No blipping the throttle and no giving the turbo a chance to cut in. just idling. So tomorrow or the next day I'll do a dechetterie/supermarche/Bricoman run and see how it holds up. Coolant in the header tank is just below the Max level and that should be the first indicator if the problem is still present.

[ChrisW]

I used that once in a family member's car once as it wasn't viable to fix it properly. Not a fix for sure but they got a couple more months out of it, so it might well get you back home from France. Best of luck.

[mangocrazy]

I used that once in a family member's car once as it wasn't viable to fix it properly. Not a fix for sure but they got a couple more months out of it, so it might well get you back home from France. Best of luck.

Thanks. If it does that I shall be more than happy. If I can get it back to Blighty my range of options expands significantly.

[Felix]

Is the water in the oil?

[mangocrazy]

Is the water in the oil?

No, no emulsion/creamy shit. Oil is fine. Just losing coolant with no apparent leaks.

[Felix]

Is the water in the oil?

No, no emulsion/creamy shit. Oil is fine. Just losing coolant with no apparent leaks.

If no oil in the expansion tank i would just limp that home. Might just be the expansion tank pressure cap letting out steam or radiator if yours has a cap

[mangocrazy]

Is the water in the oil?

No, no emulsion/creamy shit. Oil is fine. Just losing coolant with no apparent leaks.

If no oil in the expansion tank i would just limp that home. Might just be the expansion tank pressure cap letting out steam or radiator if yours has a cap

That's the plan - take our time, plenty of stops, softly softly catchee monkey... No rad cap, just the header/expansion tank.

[Felix]

If you can take out the thermostat. That should help run it cooler and if you can get say 200 miles before the expansion tank needs filled up then make that your topping up point. You dont want to be putting cold water in a hot engine. Might be worth also carrying a roll of Gorilla tape. My lower radiator hose blew and i rolled gorilla tape over it with a few cable ties on top and some more tape. That fix took me to Italy and back and a few 1000 miles back home until i remembered and ordered a new hose.

[mangocrazy]

I'm going to do some gentle running around locally to give me an idea if it's still using coolant and if so what the usage rate is so I can plan better. The curious thing is that it hasn't overheated since it started losing coolant, the temp guage has stayed solid at the mid point (90 deg C). Take your point about the thermostat - will consult the Haynes manual to see how to do that. Will stock up on cable ties and gaffer tape,,,

[Rockburner]

I'm going to do some gentle running around locally to give me an idea if it's still using coolant and if so what the usage rate is so I can plan better. The curious thing is that it hasn't overheated since it started losing coolant, the temp guage has stayed solid at the mid point (90 deg C). Take your point about the thermostat - will consult the Haynes manual to see how to do that. Will stock up on cable ties and gaffer tape,,,

Iirc, a thermostat in air doesn't register the heat as well as a thermostat in water, so if the coolant isn't touching the thermostat, then you get a false, low, reading.

[mangocrazy]

I'm going to do some gentle running around locally to give me an idea if it's still using coolant and if so what the usage rate is so I can plan better. The curious thing is that it hasn't overheated since it started losing coolant, the temp guage has stayed solid at the mid point (90 deg C). Take your point about the thermostat - will consult the Haynes manual to see how to do that. Will stock up on cable ties and gaffer tape,,,

Iirc, a thermostat in air doesn't register the heat as well as a thermostat in water, so if the coolant isn't touching the thermostat, then you get a false, low, reading.

Yes, take your point. There has always been coolant in the header/expansion tank which is at the highest point of the cooling system. The dash alarm comes on when the coolant level is about 1 litre below Max on the tank, but there is still at least a litre of coolant in the header tank. So I think that even with the coolant at its lowest level the thermostat will be fully immersed in coolant. But I'll bury my head in the Haynes manual again to see what it says...