I recently left the reservoir cap off and drove 240 miles. Car overheated and the oil built aswell.

Now it will not start and the water in reservoir is grey. Turns over but won't start. No signs of cream on lipstick or around oil filler.

RAC man said the head gasket has probably gone.

If this is the case is it a viable repair as I don't know if there is any other damage or drop another engine in.

It was losing about 2 ltrs of water on a long run but no sign where it was going. I had a hero carbon test and it was only slightly green.

Anyone have an idea what is best to do?

Car is worth about £4000 with only 68000 miles on

Hi,

Yes, either headgasket failure or a crack in the block/head.

Leaving the cap off means there wasn't any pressure in the cooling system, so coolant can't have been forced into the oil system which is under much higher pressure.

The engine could be stripped and rebuilt but as these are generally reliable and scrap yards are full of them it's cheapest just to replace the whole engine with a used item. Should be able to pick one up for around £500. I would recommend changing the cambelt and waterpump while it's out for another £100. And would estimate around £500 in labour to replace the engine at an independent garage. If you shop around you might be able to get the whole lot done for less than £1000.

The car is worth less than a grand spares or repair, so financially I would say it is worth spending a grand repairing it, even if you sell it on soon afterwards.

Thankyou very much for your help.

This engine had a new belt and waterproof 1000 miles ago so is it OK to swap them over?

Do I just need a bare engine without ancillaries?

So a dose of steel seal wouldn't be any good as I can't run engine for it to circulate

6 minutes ago, Russell Jones said:

Thankyou very much for your help.

This engine had a new belt and waterproof 1000 miles ago so is it OK to swap them over?

Do I just need a bare engine without ancillaries?

I really wouldn't recommend that. The waterpump is contaminated with oil now. And you may find the cambelt has also been contaminated with the oil/coolant mixture if it blew the relief valve on the waterpump when overheating. For the sake of £100 I would just replace those with new.

You do only need a bare engine, but as these engines are fairly cheap, the more that comes fitted saves labour time being swapped over.

7 minutes ago, Russell Jones said:

So a dose of steel seal wouldn't be any good as I can't run engine for it to circulate

Correct.

Ok that's great Thankyou