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...

[mangocrazy]

Two weeks since last post, and we're back in Sheffield. The van made it back with just one low water level alarm event. We left the moneypit Friday midday and headed for Riom (just north of Clermont Ferrand) for an overnight stop. About 40kms into the journey the A75 autoroute goes from essentially sea level to 700 metres above, and it does this in the space of a couple of miles, so quite a hard climb. I must admit I was bricking it during the climb, expecting any minute to see the red alarm of death on the dash, but it all went without incident.When we got to Riom I checked fluid levels and if anything they were high... So we'd done 220 miles with no apparent loss of coolant.

Next day it was the drive from Riom to the port in Caen Ouistreham - around 350 miles in total, and again we did this without any nasty warning alarms. For both days I'd been driving really gently - trying to avoid asking for any significant turbo boost and keeping the revs around 500rpm lower than I'd normally use. This method continued into Sunday (today) and all was going well until we'd just passed the M6 South turnoff on the M42 and the dreaded red coolant alarm and piercing beep made an unwelcome return. This was about 70 miles away from Sheffield and we made it home from there without any further alarms after topping up the coolant.

So basically the snake oil got us home - 800 miles door to door with only one stop to top up the coolant. I'll take that any day. Now I've got to decide whether I keep the van and fix it, or replace it and if so with what?

[MrLongbeard]

Is the water in the oil?

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

mayo / emulsion doesn't always happen if the head gasket goes, I'd be sticking my nose in the expansion tank and smelling for fuel as a more reliable indicator.

[demographic]

Dunno about van prices where you ate but up here I'd be tempted to keep the one you have and sort it out.
Van prices still seem to be silly money locally and especialy for VWs.

Depends on how good the rest of the van is I guess.

[weeksy]

Now I've got to decide whether I keep the van and fix it, or replace it and if so with what?

I guess that comes down to 'how much is it worth' and 'do i really need a van'

[Count Steer]

Remind me, how old is the van? Trade-in value?

I tend to be a bit of a 'the devil you know' fan but your use of the van for trekking across France ups the reliability requirement. If the change means going for a low miles van with warranty then If it means going for a high miles more unknown quantity then

M42? Interesting. Not just a straight hack up the M1?

[mangocrazy]

Now I've got to decide whether I keep the van and fix it, or replace it and if so with what?

I guess that comes down to 'how much is it worth' and 'do i really need a van'

Yes, that's the bottom line. I need to get it confirmed that the fault lies with the cylinder head/gasket. If it does, then it's down to value and cost to repair vs. cost of 'new' van. If the fault is not with the head/gasket then it's happy days and I keep the van.

I've been pondering whether I do actually need a van or not, but it gets used a lot for ferrying motorbikes around the place (inc. to France and back) and I'm really not a fan of trailers. It's time to sit down and figure out the options and decide what I really need.

[KungFooBob]

Recon engine?

DIY head gasket shouldn't be out of the abilities of a half confident spannerman if you know a good shop who can skim the head and as long as no liners have dropped (if it's a wet liner engine).

The only scary bit for me would be timing it all back up.