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How much money to replace cylinder head gasket?


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10 minutes ago, Paul Charlton said:

For info a fully reconned head for a modern four cylinder car engine can  be had for £350 exchange.

 

But we are talking at a very restricted market serving 40 year old BMC 1500 engines.

 

This place will srt you out with most of the spares you need if you take the head off (£90 for a gasket set)

 

BMC 1.5 Leyland 1500 Diesel Engine Spares (asap-supplies.com)

 

 

 

£1600 + shipping for a new head

 

New Engine Cylinder Head Bare with guides for BMC Leyland 1.5 Ltr 8D 154 8D.154 | eBay

 

 

Reconditioned head £600

 

CYLINDER HEAD ASSY BMC 1.5 RECONDITIONED - Calcutt Boats Ltd (calcuttboatsshop.com)

 

 

You will most certainly be talking well over £1000 when you add parts and labour

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50 minutes ago, Paul Charlton said:

Looks like steam to me, its even fogging up the camera lens. 

 

 

Looks like oil smoke to me from the way it is behaving. Steam tends to disappear quicker than that. The POCs will be approx 50% water vapour so fogging of the lens is to be expected.

 

If the smoke is products of combustion then I'd expect the exhaust to be smoking similarly. Looks to me like the product of hot oil on the manifold. It also seems to be coming from nowhere in particular, rather than being shot out sideways from a ruptured head gasket. 

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58 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

You cannot mill  or plane a BMC head as the combustion inserts are hardened.It has to be ground.

 

I am not convinced that any of this is due to a head gasket, proper diagnosis may save you £hundreds.

 

Totally agree.

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On 13/05/2022 at 10:23, IanD said:

 

None of those are difficult to obtain, and given them removing the head and replacing the gasket isn't difficult, neither are things like regrinding the valves if you're at all handy, there's are plenty of online videos nowadays -- and yes I've done all this (and a lot more) when we rebuilt the engine of our Chevette in my MILs garage many years ago, with just a Haynes workshop manual... 😉

 

The problem is being handy enough to do all this, having the knowledge to check for things like head flatness or cracks, and knowing what to do if you find them. If you don't, pay a mechanic -- and be prepared for nasty (and possible expensive) surprises, for example we knew the big ends had gone (bottom end rebuild needed, including crank regrind) but it turned out the engine also needed a rebore, which meant new pistons and rings... 😞

 

From the OP's post I suspect skills for a DIY engine stripdown may be lacking, a mobile mechanic may be the only sensible option, with the possibility of a big bill if it's not just a gasket replacement.

 

I had a Chevette in the late 70's that needed a full engine rebuild.

 

It also got through two recon gearboxes, a couple of distributers and an oil pump.

 

Worst car I ever owned.

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1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

on our the timing sprocket broke in half on Christmas eve on the way to Brighton near the Dartford Crossing.

 

They weren't nicknamed Vauxhall Shuvit for nothing... 🤣😂

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On 13/05/2022 at 09:28, john.k said:

Not that long..........my advice...,spend 50 quid on tools and do it yourself ....head off in an hour ,clean it up ,take it out and have it faced,back on and engine running in 3 hours...................however ,its not uncommon for these kinds of engines to have multiple cracks in the head if theyve been run hot.

When was the last time you bought tools?

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8 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

I had a Chevette in the late 70's that needed a full engine rebuild.

 

It also got through two recon gearboxes, a couple of distributers and an oil pump.

 

Worst car I ever owned.

My Shove it (bought from new) had , in no order and by no means complete:- All window rubbers x2, a new carburettor,  a total brake failure at 50 mph, 2 new gearboxes, 1 new propshaft. All in less than 17,000 miles

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11 hours ago, MtB said:

 

That was the one like an Austin 1100 crossed with a Morris 1000, and a square steering wheel wasn't it?

Yeah, but they did drop the insane square wheel very quickly lol.

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Probably not my prime period of employment, I had an Allegro as a company car. To be honest, take away the inferior engineering, the look of cars in that era were quite attractive. Allegro, Maestro, Horizon etc. 

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11 minutes ago, Mike Hurley said:

Simca did a version of that as well, i remember the engines sounded like a dustbin full of spanners falling down a fire escape, like most Simcas did then.

Ah, the Simca engine with the right angle drive fan belt If my memory is still working. The AA trialed them as a patrol van..........................very briefly.

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