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Thought I'd share this as it may save you some money if you take your car to a less scrupulous garage than me.
Surf was dripping oil on the drive for about 6 months and gradually getting worse. Noticed that it had started to use oil too. Never smokes and has passed MOT's easily. Inspection under bonnet showed all the classic signs of a head gasket starting to go. Oil fizzing at front passenger side of engine where head meets block.
Rang local garage who said they would replace head gasket for me so I bought all the necessary parts and consumeables (gasket set, stretch bolts, oil, filters etc). Also bought full set of belts and pulleys to have them done while they were ripping the engine apart.
Got a call after an hour to say that they had stripped manifold assembly and it had oil in it. They suggested that turbo was leaking oil into inlet manifold and that oil seemed to be seeping from manifold to head joint rather than head gasket. No smoke because any excess oil gets burnt in with the diesel. Mechanic suggested rebuilding, sealing properly and a thorough degreasing to make sure it cured it. Job done and there appears to be no leak at all from head gasket or manifold now. They have suggested that I drive it for a couple of days to make 110% sure.
If this was the cause of the leak then it is a lot better to know that my turbo needs reconditioning than to go through full head gasket replacement and believe that oil leak is cured but just be masking the turbo problem.
Now just need to get turbo fixed......the joys of owning a Surf eh ?
Surf was dripping oil on the drive for about 6 months and gradually getting worse. Noticed that it had started to use oil too. Never smokes and has passed MOT's easily. Inspection under bonnet showed all the classic signs of a head gasket starting to go. Oil fizzing at front passenger side of engine where head meets block.
Rang local garage who said they would replace head gasket for me so I bought all the necessary parts and consumeables (gasket set, stretch bolts, oil, filters etc). Also bought full set of belts and pulleys to have them done while they were ripping the engine apart.
Got a call after an hour to say that they had stripped manifold assembly and it had oil in it. They suggested that turbo was leaking oil into inlet manifold and that oil seemed to be seeping from manifold to head joint rather than head gasket. No smoke because any excess oil gets burnt in with the diesel. Mechanic suggested rebuilding, sealing properly and a thorough degreasing to make sure it cured it. Job done and there appears to be no leak at all from head gasket or manifold now. They have suggested that I drive it for a couple of days to make 110% sure.
If this was the cause of the leak then it is a lot better to know that my turbo needs reconditioning than to go through full head gasket replacement and believe that oil leak is cured but just be masking the turbo problem.
Now just need to get turbo fixed......the joys of owning a Surf eh ?
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