Head gasket

[TheStig10]

Think my head gasket has gone anyong know how much this will cost?

[mattyprice4004]

A good full job including cambelt and waterpump change (presuming it's a K series) then about £500, plus or minus £100.

Which engine / car / age?

[TheStig10]

n reg 214si done just under 60k miles

[mattyprice4004]

Fair does, will be a straightforward jobby.

If you're feeling confident, lots of non-mechanical types have done theirs themselves, over on Mg-rover.org there's lots of advice there and pretty much everyone is well tooled up to help with questions etc.

Don't pay over £500 if you get it done at a garage, on something like that it's as easy as can be for a headgasket change.

[Getragdogleg]

Get it pressure tested first, it might just be the inlet manifold gasket has failed, Its VERY likely that the head gasket has gone, they normally fail around 55 to 60K but sometimes i have found its only the inlet rubber gasket has split.

I used to do these all the time when I was in my previous job, they are easy and once practised they take a few hours, a rover mechanic will be able to do one with eyes closed, get the head faced or lightly skimmed too, this helps the next head gasket to do more than 20k.

Change belts and tensioners, waterpump too, it will save you having to do it three weeks later when it fails due to the new belt tension being ever so slightly different to the last one.

[mattyprice4004]

Very good point about the inlet manifold gasket, and also with it being the 1.4 the chances of HGF are quite low considering, my old Rover 416i had done 100k on it's original and was still going, so theres hope yet.