The MGF Register Forums

Yes, as you can see my head gasket has gone. But, not on the F. Yes it's the Peugeot and at 57,000, at least the F waited until 83,000 for it to happen. As far as I can gather from the garage it is quite a common occurrence on that particular engine, the 1400.
Overall it'll cost me more than the F's did. It's our main vehicle, my wife's disabled and can't get into the F, so I have to hire a car until it is done.
In the meantime, 'Josie' the F is sitting on the drive looking smug, as she is being used in preference to the hire car, a Hyundai i20, for the things that I do, shopping &c.

Yes HGF is possible on any engine and more common than people think.

Sadly, I've decided to get rid of my 2001 F. It's just suffered the 3rd HGF in 6 years. I've taken all the precautions, steel dowels, QED remote thermostat mod, MLS gasket, strengthened oil rail, etc etc. It's just too unreliable and I'm sick of throwing money at it.

Many recurring HGFs are down to the cylinder head being cooked soft. When you have massive indentations around the fire rings, this is an almost certain indication that the alloy won’t be hard enough to do its job, no matter how much you try to skim these away.
We had to change the HG on Markus’s car twice in 3,000 miles, as it was blowing off combustion fumes into the coolant system – again! On the second occasion (2 years ago), a replacement head was fitted, no problems ever since. And he drives it a lot.

The bolts should also be retorqued after 400 miles after a new head gasket, I've heard. This can prevent reoccurrence.

I'm tempted to respond but will bite my lip.

Reckless Rat wrote:I'm tempted to respond but will bite my lip.

I won’t, Bruce.

While re-torquing may have been a sensible approach in the olden days, with steel blocks and short bolts clamping down the cylinder head, this is absolute nonsense for a sandwiched aluminium engine like the K-series. The load on the gasket is not defined by a certain torque on a suitably sized set of short bolts, but by lengthening the stretch bolts by a certain dimension (one full turn of thread, 1.25 millimetres). Therefore there is no defined torque value for the bolts you could actually re-torque it to.

Oh, John Woods is wrong then!

Psh75 wrote:Oh, John Woods is wrong then!

I hasten to add, it wasn't a direct statement from him.... A friend of mine claimed he was told this there!

I'll get back in my noob-box...