Just had to change my rad on my s2 and it was distorted and bowing out at the top and bottom,the bloke in the shop said it could have been an air lock or the headgasket might have gone.
If it is the head gasket will it be a different one than a standard one cos my engine has low comp pistons in it,any advice will be greatly appreciated

 

its probably an uprated gasket

 

you can get much better than a standard ford head gasket, and unless you have a 1900cc engine then dont use the felpro one.
CheeRS
Phil

 

when you say uprated does that just mean stronger gasket,or i thought it might be a difference in thickness of the gasket if the head was skimmed

 

IIRC cometic are the only people to do thicker headgaskets for the RST and they are quite expensive.. i doubt it will have one of them.. more than likely its going to be a standard ford one on there.

 

DOn't worry too much about a bowed rad unless its really bad. A brand new one bowed straight away on mine, Karl recomended putting a band around it

 

how can you test without taking the head off that it is gone? theres no mayonnaise in the oil cap,no white smoke coming from the exhaust and it doesnt overheat, but i have noticed in the water resevoir that it has got brown froth on top of the water, like the head on a pint

 

btt

 

you can do a compression test to check that compression in the bores is good if it has blown on 2 adjacent cylinders then they will both be down on compression.

 

cheers

 

may also be worth crack testing the block with tracer dye