[Findus Pizza]

Hi all,

Owned my '97 Ghia X for 2/3 years, never had a problem..
Last few months, there had been slight leakage to ground from around engine area, mentioned it to the garage at last service, they said don't worry!

Then it started to run a little warmer than usual and the fan would normally come on and cool it down. It was never getting anywhere near the danger area so I ignored it.

The other night my brother-in-law borrowed to do an airport pick up, on the way back it, it let go with steam coming out engine and exhaust, then would not start...AA diagnosed head gasket failure.
My guess is the water pump had been on its way out for a while and when he was driving it, probably started over heating and he just ignored it...pow!

I have had various rough quotes to fix, anyone know whats the average for a garage to charge?
Is there likely to have been any other damage done?

Cheers

 

[wozman]

Hi M8

Sounds likely the head gasket has gone. Was the water pump ever changed for the metal impellar type. The original ford ones are known to fail without warning as they have plastic impellars that crack and stop turning.

As its a V6 head gasket repair is very expensive. I would expect to pay anything from £1000 to £1500 at a garage. Its a big job as most of the ancillary parts have to come off before you can start to remove the heads.

If your handy with the spanners you could attempt it your self. It can be done for around £500 or less but dont underestimate how big a job it is.

Hope this helps
Tony

 

[MONDYMANv6]

it set me back about £600 in parts , but you could do it for aprox £450 :L

 

[ELDUDERENO]

£600 for parts!!! You must have had other problems?

 

[MONDYMANv6]

no i done a few other upgrades while i was there , like replaced more gasgets that did not need doing , chain tensioners , ST200 DMD crank pully etc i thought i would go the whole hog while i was at it lol , the car was still fine and it did not stop on me or any thing , its just on the rear head on cylinder 2 it had a very slight oil lead from the gasket , so i thought sod it STRIP IT :}

but to do the job you can do it in aprox £400-£450 :L

 

[MONDYMANv6]

only troble is when you go to remove the chain v cover you will find you will have to drop back the AC pump as it covers a bolt , well one of them was so tight you could not undo it and the head of the head of the 10mm bolt had rounded off , so i had to strip it more like , remove the lights , bumper , rad etc etc etc etc just to get this one bolt out and replace it with a new one lol here are some pics mate :L

[color:red]first you need one engine[/color] :

[color:red]Then you need to strip every soding thing down to the v block , i had to remove half the car for this as the ac pump bolts had rounded off so i could not remove the v cover [/color]

[color:red]
This was where the gasket had gone:[/color]

[color:red]after days of checking over the heads and cleaning things up , doing the timing , torqueing up etc etc etc :[/color]

then after that you have a car:

Belive me though , i have worked on a lot of cars , even engine builds up to 5.0l V8 , but the mondeo V6 is one of the most pain in the ass engines to work on i have found , its a very involved job TO DO RIGHT , i know 2 people who have tryed to do this job with not using the right tools , not using the right torque settings , not setting up the yelid bolts right , not torqueing them up in right order the list goes on and BOTH have not run right ( not people off here :L ) , as said to do the job 100% right its a pain , i done this while i had 2 weeks of work as i was doing jury service , in the 2 weeks i had rebuilt it and to this day it runs like a dream , it was done jan 06 , all the pics can be found here :

Rebuild link 1

Rebuild link 2

Ryan.

if you are thinking of having a go i will supply all the info that i know as dont go buy the pics as it looks a quick little job , it aint

 

[L11XXY]

V6 head gasket... Its a challenge LOL.. it is a pain in the arse to do, worst bit was the alternator for mine.

As for parts, i spent about 800 on mine that was new nuts and bolts for everything, new oil pump, all gaskets, PCV valve new chains, tensioners and guides etc etc..

At the end of the day its down to preference, my old Mk2 was bought with a gift from my dear old Ma just before she passed away so you can understand why i wasnt going to scrap the beast. But all in all it was worth doing, its owned by another family member now, pushing out a healthy 180BHP with 145k on the clock.

 

[MONDYMANv6]

V6 head gasket... Its a challenge LOL.. it is a pain in the arse to do, worst bit was the alternator for mine.

As for parts, i spent about 800 on mine that was new nuts and bolts for everything, new oil pump, all gaskets, PCV valve new chains, tensioners and guides etc etc..

At the end of the day its down to preference, my old Mk2 was bought with a gift from my dear old Ma just before she passed away so you can understand why i wasnt going to scrap the beast. But all in all it was worth doing, its owned by another family member now, pushing out a healthy 180BHP with 145k on the clock.

ya the alternator is what you could call FUN :} :}

its a pain in the ass anit it lol

 

[kerryw]

i can do an alternator :whistling: will be stripping my other engine down next couple of weeks and rebuilding it, ready to drop into my car a the end of the month.thats the plan anyway!!!!! my car has got terminal big/little end damage and both hg's are leaking!! sounds like a diesel at the moment :} :} keep waiting for it to chuck its internals out the exhaust/crankcase :} :}

 

[MONDYMANv6]

i can do an alternator :whistling: will be stripping my other engine down next couple of weeks and rebuilding it, ready to drop into my car a the end of the month.thats the plan anyway!!!!! my car has got terminal big/little end damage and both hg's are leaking!! sounds like a diesel at the moment :} :} keep waiting for it to chuck its internals out the exhaust/crankcase :} :}

poor thing , as said kerry as i am 20 sec walk away from you at work if you need a hand give me a shout kerry :L

 

[kerryw]

will do hun :L

 

[MONDYMANv6]

:L