To fix or not to fix that is the question?

[Crispy-Astra]

Hey guys,

Right...today as it was nice and i got off work a bit early i thought it was time to change my oil filter/oil as i've had the car a year nd half nd never done it and i dont know when it was done before i got the car. This all went well......BUT (there's always a but) i've been knowticing alot of fresh oil around the sump and the head gaskets, are these easy to fix? also i got a fair bit of rust on my brake pipes and the support beam at the back, it only surface i think but been getting advisory last few mot's. As well as this after i've been on a drive how ever long or short the engine smells like it's burning oil and if i take the oil filler cap off i get a smokey haze come out, what would this be and how would i fix?

I got a 96 N reg 1.4 3 door mk3

Is there any point on fixing and spending lots of money? lol mot is due in a couple of months and only failed on 1 tyre last time.

Any help will be very much appreciated

 

[speedysam]

compression test will tell you if the head gasket is shot

 

[Andy_Mk3]

If you can do the work yourself or know someone that can do it cheap/free then it's worth fixing as the parts required cost next to nothing, its the labour that costs so much.

Sump gasket is a fairly straight forward job so get done. If it's leaking from the head gasket, leave it if it's only seeping out a little bit. If it's the rocker cover gasket it's leaking from then that's easy to renew. Brake pipes are straight forward to fit with the right tools. If you don't have the tools then most local garages will he happy to flare the ends of the pipe up for you. Smoky have out the filler cap is fine, if you get white/blue smoke from the exhaust that's an indication that it's burning oil or water which could well be head gasket.

 

[Crispy-Astra]

ok cheers andy, i do get a fair bit of smoke outa exauhst for a while as the engine is warming up but that stops after a few mins, also the engines gets really hot really quick, is this bad? i did about a 10 mile round trip earlier and the temp gauge on my dash said it was at about 94/95. sorry i'm kinda new to mechanics but would love to learn more stuff and the astra seems nice and simple to learn from =D

 

[speedysam]

mine runs around 94/95 alouth the fan kicks in around 92ish and i get some smoke but i got told by the garage that its the automatic choke as my heads only just been done

 

[Andy_Mk3]

ok cheers andy, i do get a fair bit of smoke outa exauhst for a while as the engine is warming up but that stops after a few mins, also the engines gets really hot really quick, is this bad? i did about a 10 mile round trip earlier and the temp gauge on my dash said it was at about 94/95. sorry i'm kinda new to mechanics but would love to learn more stuff and the astra seems nice and simple to learn from =D

That's most probably steam and perfectly normal on a cold engine.

Warming up fast is fine, mine gets up to temp within a mile or two usually. The temp its running at is fine too, 90 to 98c is fine for normal running.

 

[Crispy-Astra]

sweet, thats brilliant guys thanks for the advice. I love doing bits to my car stops my bank balance being so low after i take it to garage
I will have a looky at doing the head and sump gasket, i know it was done about 2 years ago before i had the car but i know that the people that did it wernt brilliant mechanics they replaced the rocket cover as well as it was cracked and today i found that the tube that goes into it on the top left (i think a fuel tube?) had a slit in it where the clip was done to tight, lucky there was a bit of slack on the tube so i took it off, cut it down past the slit and put it back on and no leakage yet

 

[speedysam]

the tube you cut down is a oil breather tube so its ok to cut a lil ive fitted a piper x breather filter in there so thats ok the head seams simple enough alough ive never done one and the rocker cover is easy

 

[Crispy-Astra]

i've heard the head is easy but it look complicated :S rocker is simple enough, a few bolts and it's off! hmm i'm trainning to b an electrician but thinking i may wanna go into mechanics? lol 1 thing at a time

 

[Andy_Mk3]

Head job is easy, it's a matter of knowing what to do with the right tools.

 

[Crispy-Astra]

how long u rekon it would take if i've never done before?

 

[speedysam]

go onto direct.gov.uk and find the apprenticeship scheme its great ive been on there hopefully youll find something for mechanics

 

[Andy_Mk3]

No idea Umm.. you could probably do it in a day or two. There's a fair bit involved for a head rebuild, it's not hard, just time consuming.

 

[Crispy-Astra]

haha, i'm already an apprentice sparks =D but thanks anyways, may look into it after i get my sparks tickets
ok cheers andy, will look into doing it if the weather holds up....fingers crossed

 

[KinG^Lee]

Head gasket is a little challenging to do as u need to strip the engine down to the lower block, oil sump gasket and rocker cover gasket is easy to do your self.

As for the rust can you not sand it back to metal and use some waxyoil on it (if its not seen) this will slow down the rust process and protect the metal a little.

 

[Crispy-Astra]

thanks lee, i was told same thing but hammerite? whats your recomendations?