XANTIA HDi RUNNING ROUGH

[Skull]

Drained approx 2 Ltrs out of the radiator (still clean) So that leaves about 7 Ltrs of coolant in the sump plus the oil in there

Skull's - view through fuel injector port

Skull's - Piston No.3

2 photos of a dry No. 3 Piston

All the coolant pipes are in the correct locations (It's impossible to mix them up due to different dimensions and orientation)

I need to gather more containers for the waste/mess that's about to occur .....

I HAVE A THEORY which might explain why the coolant is going straight to the sump
Back to PAGE 18 and what I initially thought was a blockage

That turned out to be a false alarm as the gasket was solid in that area blocking off the flow of coolant deliberately

Sorry .....False alarm Jim ....That Coolant Port for whatever reason isn't actually cut out of the gasket ....whilst there is fine orange silt in the coolant I drained, corrosion seems to be minimal.

I'm wondering IF I have installed the gasket upside down the 'boomerang slot' in the gasket that you can see the old imprint of in this photo ...

Skull's - HDi Cylinder head - blanked port

Could now have opened up that port allowing a clear passage to the oil drainage slot and straight to the sump ...see below for an illustration of my theory ....

Skull's - HDi gasket failure

I've been going through all my strip down/rebuild photos to try and confirm this theory but none show the orientation with the gasket in situ with the thickness identifying tab to confirm my suspicions.

The Haynes manual says the notched tab is at the front between cylinders 2 and 3 but I recall thinking it was hard to see on the strip down as my original tab was on the rear of the engine obscured by the intake manifold ......

If the orientation in this photo is to be believed it looks like I've made a MASSIVE error ...but it's not that clear due to the kitchen towel I used to highlight the gasket ....THE STUDS ARE TO THE REAR OF THE ENGINE

[mickthemaverick]

Great minds Gary!! This is a clip I wrote from my discussion with Jim yesterday which came to my mind reading your post today:

"Yes I didn't like the way it seemed to fill so fast, sadly it does suggest an actual clear path from coolant to oil which leaves very limited options unless the head gasket is upside down or something. I remember he did say that on the old one what appeared to be a coolant channel had no hole in the gasket. Hopefully he didn't make one in the new gasket!!"

[Skull]

Mick if only they had a label on it that said 'this way up' on it

[mickthemaverick]

The good side of that idea is that you probably have not done any serious damage, just need to repeat the swap work , which should be easier second time round!!

[moizeau]

That makes sense

With tha gasket being upside down would partially open this hole up.
At least with the engine not having been run so no heat cycle the gasket should be OK, it's just a pain in the arris.

[moizeau]

You may be able to see without a stripdown if it's been put in upside down by looking if these protrusions are sticking out?

[mickthemaverick]

You may be able to see without a stripdown if it's been put in upside down by looking if these protrusions are sticking out?

HDi full gasket2.jpg

Unless the gasket is flipped end to end, which I feel it would need to be for the holes to line up, but the tags would be the same.

EDIT: Ignore that comment Pete is correct the outside tabs are different lengths so would show

[Skull]

Yeah that’s what I’m looking at - reversed

[mickthemaverick]

We wait in anticipation, at least it'll give you something to do!

[Skull]

I think I need closer supervision

[mickthemaverick]

[mickthemaverick]

Stable doors, horses and bolts come to mind but this may be useful!!

2.0 HDi head gasket.pdf

Copied from Service Box

(237.8 KiB) Downloaded 40 times

[Skull]

I've drained the contents of the sump ...

Skull's - Sump drained

Skull's - Contaminated Coolant

I thought I'd have a sneaky peek at the Cylinder Head gasket with the intension of just sneaking a new gasket in without removing too much

So I pulled the hoist out, buried at the back of my shed, undone/removed the minimum fixtures and fittings and eventually lifted the head (hoist beam length was extended beyond it's proper capacity but I was only raising half the engine in theory).

Skull's - Cylinder Head cracked off

Camshaft Cover re-fitted after head bolts removed to minimise debris entering

The gasket wiggled out easily enough but although the Cylinder Head face looked cleanish, using a mirror to peek in, probably just needing a dry off, the block face already had some light corrosion on it's face despite a 50/50 Bluecol anti-freeze mix and will need at least some fine wet sanding, I'm debating whether to try and get a bit more clearance so I can clean up the faces again and insert the gasket securely before lowering the head again (it will save a considerably amount of time, effort and another gasket kit for inlet/exhaust/coolant outlet)

This shows how wrong the gasket was installed - I'm surprised it actually went together easily

Skull's - Head Gaskets

NEW GASKET -----------OLD GASKET FITTED WRONG
Not only was it back to front/upside down but 180 degree rotated on the block as well

I'm still tempted to remove a few more bits to get some more clearance so I can get my hand in enough to clean the faces up and slide the new gasket in ....

[mickthemaverick]

Good work Gary and it at least proves that all things being equal you will get it up and running next time.

[Huskyxantia]

Excellent stuff