my heads gone

[newbe]

my car has the dreaded whitish sludge on the dip stick so i checked at my local garage they say my head has gone. does anyone know of a good repairer in or near edenbridge kent? does anyone know how much it should cost? also is there a way of fixing this prob for good as every f tf owner seem to have the same prob.

[steve anning]

sorry to hear the news
I'd be interested in a final fix too!
steve

[Emma Jackman]

Paul,

Sorry to hear about you problems. Did your local garage check the car fully? Or did you just tell them what had happened? I ask because many F's suffer from a bit of mayo on the dipstick due to condensation, and also caused if you use it regularly for short journeys. If it is a HGF and if you can get your F there, I would recommend Apple Developments in Meopham. ( www.apple-development.co.uk ). David also uses this garage, not sure whether he used them to fix his HGF. I didn't get mine done there, but had MG Rover Whitehouse in Dartford fix it. 2 years on and it's still a good 'un (probably jinxed myself now), but I did have to pay MG dealer prices.

[TimM]

Worth being careful its not just condensation as Emma says - depends on how frequently you use the car - if ti sits without being used for long periods particularly at this time of year then you could get some.
When mine went I had quite large amounts of brown/white sludge in the expansion tank. Cost will be about £600 probably. Make sure you get the steel dowells and uprated gasket set.
Sadly there is no final fix but the instances of re offending ar pretty low aster its been done . It's worth having a water sensor put on, as several people are doing now, to give you early warning of low water levels (available from B & G)

[newbe]

thanks for all your advice. its funny because there was only the mayo type sludge on the top of the dip stick. i took it in to my local garage and when they opened the engine cap there was no sludge. they then did a test with some chemicals in a funny looking twin testube thingy the blue liquid went down and after about 5-10 mins some green liquid came up. that was when they said it was the hg. i havent noticed loosing large amounts of water?

[keithtinman]

Newbe, how are you getting on with your white slugde I am having the same problem see below. *did you get yours sorted out yet?

I have a 1999 V Reg MGF with 30k on clock; I have noticed a small amount of white 'Mayo' on the end of the dipstick.

There is no mayo in the actual oil though, and I don’t seem to be loosing any coolant or have any overheating issues.

You can also get the mayo to appear if you simply put the dipstick into the guide tube and make contact with the base of it without touching the actual oil.

I think the mayo attributes to moisture being inducted down the guide tube and congealing at the base of the guide?

Dont know what I should do ?



Thanks
Keith

[Dave]

keithtinman said:

Dont know what I should do ?

If you are definitely not losing any water and are prone to doing short journeys - then don't worry. A good blast will clear the condensation in the dipstick tube.

[keithtinman]

I have found the problem; it wasn’t the head gasket but simply condensation on the inside of the dipstick/ oil filler reservoir. I did an oil change to see what the oil was like . I was expecting the worst, but out came nice black normal oil, no 'mayo' or yellow discolouration to it at all.

I then decided to take the oil filler / dipstick holder reservoir off, this was simple, you just take off 1 x 10mm bolt and it slides up and off, I then took the 4 long screws out from the top. Looking inside I could see the problem, around the bottom of it there was a load of 'mayo', this then explains the fact that when you simply put the dipstick in without even touching any oil the mayo came out.

So I flushed the whole thing out with carb cleaner, then got a freshly boiled kettle and poured the lot in to the resivour.Be careful if you decide to do this, hold the metal bracket with a pair or leather gloves on to protect your hands if you miss the hole. Then I dried the whole thing out with a hair dryer till it was bone dry, left it on a radiator also as a good measure for an hour. Then found why the condensation was there.The grommet in the base of the filler reservoir had eroded a little, and with the heat of the oil and the engine water vapor was getting inducted through the small gap creating 'mayo' at the base of the reservoir. So I put the whole lot together again and placed it on the dipstick guide pipe, then got some clear silicon bathroom type sealant and smeared this all around where the metal pipe and the plastic coupled! This has hopefully healed the problem and it won’t reappear again.

Hope this helps anyone with the same problem. ;D


Regards
Keith

[TimM]

Glad to see it was just condensation Keith - Newbe sounds the same - what was the outcome of yours Newbe ?

It is something to be aware of before a garage whips your head off for nothing !

[David A]

timm said:

...It is something to be aware of before a garage whips your head off for nothing !

My garage wouldn't do anything for nothing!