A work colleague with no spare cash has a Vectra with a 2 litre Ecotec engine that's using water. No external leaks in the cooling system and a bit of steam visible from the exhaust on a cold day so I'm 99.9% sure the head gasket is goosed but the car still runs and drives OK at the moment. The guy is totally skint and I'm looking to help him out with this because there's no way he can afford a proper repair or a replacement car.
Soooooo, I wondered if anyone on here has ever had any success using head gasket repair fluid like this:
Ebay Linky
(Don't tell me it's a lash-up, I know that!!)

I have experience of it used as a head gasket cure on two occasions......
Both failed

I was about to suggest 3 bottles of radweld.


That gunk you linked to is just a bigger bottle by the looks of it..

Ive seen one bodged with 3 of the rad sticks, looks a bit like a knobbly turd without the bend in it lol.

Cannot say Ive seen the dogshit sticks for a few years but Ive seen a few old vans patched up with them.

Go for it, if the lad is skint its not like he has many options, however the gasket sets on ebay are not that costly either.

Of all of the things that you can stuff in to your cooling system to stop leaks, K-Seal is probably the best.

having said that on a head gasket, it depends where the failure is as how effective it wil be.

An altogether better solution proper head gasket set on ebay here

Cheers

Mark

[Edited on 29/1/10 by mookaloid]

I've used it on a headgasket fault before and it worked. It was onlly a very slight leak though so it would depend on how bad the leak was.

some people swear by it and you can get it off the shelf from eurocarparts if you have one local
also you can get bars leaks and radweld from local halfords
i guess it depends how bad it is leaking as to wether itll work but £5 to £10 bodge might make it last till a few more pennies are available to do it properly
Ray

I have used it in a old 3 litre supra I had and it worked for about 500 miles until I sold it (and told the next person) and believe that it went for quite a while after possibly still going, I guy that I work with told me about it after using it on a Rover 75 with the diesel BMW engine and that went on for over 10,000 miles many of which he was towing a massive caravan. But that doesn't mean it always works!

quote:

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Originally posted by Russell
No external leaks in the cooling system and a bit of steam visible from the exhaust on a cold day so I'm 99.9% sure the head gasket is goosed

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Whatever you don't put Radweld or Barrs Leaks into a modern engine.

K-Seal will only help in the type of head gasket leak where the leak is between the water jacket and the oil return channnels ie oil and water are mixing. It won't work on leaks between the cylinder and the waterways.

Personally I would do a cold pressure test on the cooling system, while he odds are it is a cylinder head gasket it could well be a leak somewhere else -- any leak from a hot pressurised cooling system will flash off into steam -- .steam is invisible.

If you must use a stop leak then this is the best and the only one I'd ever use.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Forte-Car-Radiator-Coolant-Stop-Leak-Treatment-500ml_W0QQitemZ190349163150QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?h ash=item2c51b1ba8e

It's a bodge and we only use it in similar circumstances to what you describe as atemporary fix. However I do know of a truck that got back from Italy with a blown headgasket on 2 bottles of it.

adrian

Thanks guys - some mixed comments there. I was half expecting cries of "snake oil" but it seems that one or other of the mentioned products could be worth a punt for a tenner or so. I think his meagre funds will stretch to that.

I was surprised at the reasonable cost of the head gasket set on eBay but I guess that's not the whole story. We'd have to factor in a new timing belt kit and possible head skim as well.

Just to repeat all these products except K-seal were not formulated for modern engines.

Older engines and raddiators had much larger bore water passages, for example Barrs leaks and Radweld have both been known to cause problems with choked waterways in the cylinder head on Honda V6 engines.

The first thing is is there Water in the Oil ?
has the oil gone white