Right, well my 206 HDi seems to have a head gasket problem. As soon as it comes on boost (e.g over 2000rpm going up hill) the coolant system pressurises and blows steam and coolant out of the presure cap. If you drive it gently, the system fills itself with gas over a day or so.
So who has done a head job on an HDi, any tips? The Haynes method includes remvoing almost everything (injectors etc) but I see no need for this. Can you remove the head with the turbo and manifolds attatched, removing the turbo beforehand looks like a more involved job the removing the head itself
Its only done 48k, so am a bit perplexed as to why the head gasket may have failed, but there you go. Will have the head pressure tested and checked for flatness whilst its off to rule that out.
Damn car!
Edit: Its the 2.0 90bhp lump
Last edited by rossd on 15 Jan 2007, 08:11, edited 1 time in total.
The turbo only provides a maximum pressure of approx 0.7-0.8bar, which haedly will blow anything out from anywhere
The steam is evapourating coolant, not exhaust remnants.
I would like you to first ensure :
1) the coolant system is filled and vented correctly.
2) coolant system is pressure tight (cap is working)
3) there is absolutely nothing restricting the coolant flow to/fro the radiator. Check hoses for kink, thermostat for function, radiator for sediments (from the engine/head factory processes )
This to prevent you dont burn a too large hole in your pocket
The coolant system is definatly filled and bled correctly!
- You can bleed it until the cows come home, run the engine, rev it, no gas. As soon as you drive it, coolant pressure is huge and system is full of gas.
- The cap works, but will change it for a new one soon: After a run there is a big hiss as its undone.
- I will remove and test the thermostat, but the coolant gauge sits at a constant 80 degrees, no overheating or undercooling.
The coolant has been drained and replaced in the last week, bled out completely but the problem still remains. The coolant will only blow the pressure cap if its beeing driven on boost, for example driving up a steep dual carriage-way this morning, 5th gear, 70mph, 2200rpm. Turbo boosting hard. Get to top of hill, strong smell of coolant and steam coming from bonnet.
If you potter about, not using boost, this wont happen. The system will still fill itself with gas though.
The turbo may only boost to 0.9 bar, but combustion pressures are much more than that.....
Car still starts on the key, no missing, no overheating, no steam out of the exhaust, no oil in coolant and vice versa.
Right, changed the pressure cap and its still the same. Bled it all out completely, took it for a drive, but was pressurised fully again. Can hear air bubbles going through the heater matrix too when pulling away.
Has anyone done a head gasket on this engine; can you lift the head off with the turbo attatched? Looks like a right nightmare to get the turbo off with engine/head in car
Never done one on a 206 but did one on a xsara & a C5 in place,the xsara was a bit of a pain & if i was doing another one i would probably remove the engine 1st. however the C5 can be done ok in place.
The 206 is a light car and would be born as a quickie with a HDI.
You have not been too enthusiastic with tuning kits etc. ?
- as me thinks its a bit prematurely it has eaten up its HG.
I seem to remember that someone on the forum did a HDI HG job and reported its much the same job as on a XU TD.
Apart from the different anxillaries, the turbo is still fitted to the exh manifold and thus presumeably will much easier come out still attached to the manifold.
Anyways - its no longer an overnight job replacing a HG on recent cars - too much extras fitted to the advantage of our environment
i have done one in place you need to drop the turbo off the back otherwise when you go to lift the head off the turbo will not clear the back of the block,to be honest the next one i will just drop the motor straight out,all that fafing around the back of the motor and the water outlet tank on head has to slide off (unless you can get studs out of head loctited) at the front not to bad just the h/p pipe from pump to rail couple of pipes and connectors. if you have a ramp drop the motor if not good luck axle stands and drop the subframe might help
EP6T petrol turbo nice engine in the 207 GT and the new mini....
So just undo the 3 nuts holding the manifold to turbo and split them... Going to need 4 arms for this!
Anders: I know it seems like a very low mileage, as far as I'm aware the car has never been tuned (Its light enough not to need it!)
Agree that from the front it doesnt look like to bad a job. Got a friend with an engine crane so might just remove driveshafts etc and lift the whole lump out as I'm going to replace timing belt and water pump at the same time.
Oh well
Right well done the head now! Got it off and found some nasty damage to it, nothing a good skim wouldn't sort though! Chap I took it to said it was very distorted, he had to take 8 thou (0.2mm) off to get it back into shape.
Cleaned everything and started putting it back together again. Car has only done 49k, but put on new cambelt, waterpump and tensioners. Used new headbolts too.
Managed to remove the head without removing the turbo, split the turbo from the manifold with the head on and lifted head off.
Managed to get the studs off the coolant housing ok, they were tight but soon gave in to brute force!
Its all back together now, and, touchwood running brilliantly.
if you have head skimmed you need to check valve protrusion after with dti and fit thicker head gasket and fit different washers under injectors by skimming all is a lot closer to the piston now
EP6T petrol turbo nice engine in the 207 GT and the new mini....
Yep, I did all of that, the valve protrusion was spot on the maximum of 0.2mm after the skim. I fitted the thickest gasket (5 notch) aswell. (The one that came off was a 3 notch)
Just driven it to work now, 35 mile trip, still fine.... Looking good so far!
pugxpert wrote:fafing around the back of the motor and the water outlet tank on head has to slide off (unless you can get studs out of head loctited)
Thats another great french idea,that coolant housing is a pain in the ass.whats wrong with using bolts ?
The simple reason that over the last x years, cars have been increasingly "designed for manufacture". If it takes 45 seconds to fit 2 bolts, but 3 seconds to slide something on, that's effectively taking one man out of the build process. Might only take 50p out of the build cost of a car, but do that 1000 times, and the car becomes £500 cheaper.
Another byproduct is that the less human operations required on a car, the less chance of failure (i.e. warranty claim). These are the things that car MANUFACTURERS look at - the fact it takes a dealer 10 times longer to change the same part (at the owners expense, usually) is not really their concern. They just make larger (read more expensive) parts which leads to the "black box" replacement theory. Won't be long before it'll be cheaper to fit a new engine that do a head gasket - at dealer rates, anyway...
Sorry for the long explanation, but I work in the automotive industry automation industry - yes, the crew which replace 10 skilled jobs with 3 robots and a numpty (waits for flaming..). On the flip side, cars have that much more equipment on them nowadays that the same number of workers are still needed, just fitting black boxes instead.
)
