Blown Headgasket --(Adam Gibson)

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Gertie's motor finally cried enough the other night, did a headgasket about 50kms from home, but that was a good thing because it was at the start of a trip to NSW, which means it could have been worse, we just limped her home, stopping at every single off-ramp on the SE freeway in order to fill the radiator with more coolant, got home fine, did out 45 minute engine removal trick.

Found a few other things, we had a torn engine mount, which explains a strange noise under acceleration, we had been using brake fluid, which doesn't explain anything, but is a good enough excuse to replace the master cylinder and brake booster and last but not least it was the number three not the number four cylinder which wasn't running well.

While we are at it we might just throw away the old 5-speed and 1.6, which is good.

[old forum]

[old forum]

Bad luck mate! But that wouldn't happen just like that. Maybe you should off checked the oil, hoses and water level before you left. Now that you've cooked it you should think whether to get a new engine (hopefully a 2L) or just rebuilt the 1600!
I've been to sydney with my gem, after i got back all these little things started to go wrong! the head was the first thing to go, but because i knew it first, i added this head sealent thingo and it lasted me another year, till now! Mind you that my radiator runs mostly in oil and not water and the oil light has been on continuosly for 4 days. Last week i bought 6L of oil and it only lasted my 5 days! No smoke but it does get hot and since i've got no more oil to add it sound like the pistons are slapping! I'm hoping that it runs until wed. when the 2L should be in! I'm not buying anymore oil since i needed it for the new engine!
Let me know what you are planning to do next!

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Well, rang motorama holden spare parts, will be picking up a new replacement engine mount at 9 tomorrow morning. Had the brake booster and master cylinder rekitted by slacks creek brake and clutch today, $300 or so for that.

Also we pulled out the diff on sunday, cleaned it up with the trust ol' wire brush and gave it a coat of matt black, but upon putting it back in we noticed a slight pinion seal oil leak, so we popped over to autobarn and picked up a replacement, just finished throwing that in, really should have drained and refilled the sump cos the oil, whilst nice in colour was fairly gritty, and while I was at it I should have taken apart the torque tube, it had loads of road grime etc built up in it, cleaned as much as I could but I will do a better job next time.

As for the engine, did some ringing around today chasing a two litre, which will be a nice upgrade from the G161. Also will be hunting around for another 5-speed, mine was getting pretty darn tired, synchro in second was on the way out and had a fair bit of gear whine in 5th.

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Let us know how much more grunt the 2L gives you