That Stupid Swirl / degassing pot

[megaflea]

Soooo, the stupid swirl pot on my 5 popped in half some time ago, it was a nice clean break, so i bought some super mega ultra tough glue and sealed it back together this stuff was strong, i put all my strength into trying to pull the swirl pot apart before confirming it was probably stronger than original,fitted it to the car and totally forgot about it, car was running fine for months the other night then whilst driving back home from london after picking up a turbo for the fiesta i noticed a mild lack of power, i assumed it was because i was running on the reserve tank and the secondary pump cant really hand the fuel requirements on boost, so i laid off the boost and casually cruised down the a13, then just out the corner of my eye i catch a little red blink (maybe half a second), being an old car and a little damp on the road i assumed this little blink was merely a little electrical glitch, the temperature gauge looks fine the heaters are working nicely no obvious issues, i arrive at a small traffic jam a mile down the road to find steam pouring out the engine bay, and i watch the temperature needle quickly rocket to hot, and the overheat light switch on the dash so i quickly move the car over into a layby switch the engine whipped open the bonnet to find the little bloody swirl pot and popped clean in half and the engine completely drained of coolant, i'm 20 miles from home, all i've got on me is an old trainer with a shoe lace and an empty water bottle, sooo, i use the shoe lace to tie the swirl pot back together and found a nice clean puddle to fill the water bottle up to re fill the engine with some form of water, i got home after stopping at every water point on the way, topping up and rebleading the cooling system, the next day i glue the swirl pot back together, (have ordered a replacement plastic one until i ca find a cheap alloy one) switched the car on and found dun dun daaah headgasket cream on the filler cap (just a little hint of it), so it looks like i've gotta do the bloody headgasket,  just before i jump right in, does anyone else find a little emulsion cream during warming up on a very cold morning, or do you reckon its deffo headgasket,

your thoughts please

[markey mark (bd)]

If you've over heated the engine i would say there's possibly a good chance you've warped the head, you do sometimes get alittle white mayo in winter under the oil cap but if its real thick white cream looking then somethings deffinately gone.
Also is the car driving ok still, no signs of water excessively pressurizing or running lumpy? Worth doing a few checks before pulling the head off

Just so you know the reserve pump only feeds the main tank so your still ok to drive normally when that comes in

[Ash-Lee]

Sounds like you might of over cooked it.

All you can do is wait for the replacement part, refill and bleed the coolant and then hope for the best. Or if you can get hold of someone with a compression gauge.

If you prepare for the worse though, anything less is a bonus!

[megaflea]

i have got a compression tester when the replacement part gets here i'll fill it up, bleed it warm it up and see what the compression is like, ugh i hate fixing cars this time of year,  i wish they made self heating tools,

[robx1r]

i have got a compression tester when the replacement part gets here i'll fill it up, bleed it warm it up and see what the compression is like, ugh i hate fixing cars this time of year,  i wish they made self heating tools,

oven for 10 min @ 40 degrees.

being cold is better than being wet! if you have the money buy the new head kit at least its there when you need it

[megaflea]

oven for 10 min @ 40 degrees.

HaHa the girlfriend will love that, she already gets upset when i wash parts in the sink /,

yeah mike from gt turbo spares is going to sort me out a payen headgasket set, bolts and a replacement swirl pot, ace, hes a legend he has at least 1 of every possible spare part going,



as for working in the wet,

today in the pissing rain me and my mate done steam seals and headgasket on his 1973 clubman estate,

[megaflea]

Ah Damn,

Looks Like I'm making cottage cheese in the engine,
i hope there is enough meat on the head for a skim
picked up a corteco headset with 1.9mm gasket, i hear they are uprated

[megaflea]

So the R5 has been sitting in the garage with its knackered head-gasket whilst i've been out c*@ting it off in the fez zetec turbo, well the bigs ends went on the fez and it blhe shell and block which means the 5 has got to come out of the garage early, and i've gotta do the head gasket, its the first one i've done on a 5, hoping someone can answer me this question,

do i remove and refit the head with manifolds on, them 13mm nuts look pretty awkward to get, anyone run me through a real quick fire steps,

the head i sent off to the machinist was 73.6mm hopefully it only needed 10thou skim to take of the storage scratches and dinks :S

[Ash-Lee]

I leave the manifolds in place. Remove the turbo though to make things easier...and somewhat lighter.

You correct on another point as well. The nuts holding the manifolds onto the cylinder head are a real pig to get too. While the head is off, it's worth making sure that all the studs and nuts are all there.

[megaflea]

kool, i'll whip the turbo off and take the head off and refit the replacement with manifolds still attached,

The replacement head has all nuts and studs present, yippee,
however no gasket for the plate that goes on the side of head in the gasket set? hrm

[Ash-Lee]

On mine i've just used sealant. Never had an issue.

If you want to waste an evening you could purchase some gasket paper and carve out your own. Also worth running a tap through those small M6 threads, they mess up quite easily.

[megaflea]

never updated this thread,

Fitted uprated headset from mike at gt turbo spares along with uprated head bolts and bought an alloy swirl pot from fleabay, has been as good as gold
600miles of hard driving last weekend to santapod and back and sussex and back and still good    running about 13psi boost maybe more not sure ??

now i need a new gearbox mine whiring in all gears (hope it just needs oil as has a little leak)