Right my car has decided enough is enough and is now starting to give me some serious problems.

Went up the Birmingham races yesterday no real problems checked oil and water before I went and thought everything was fine. Had a little play nothing excessive and parked up for the majority of the night.

When we decided to go up Hams Hall went along the motorway nothing sinister till we pull of the M42 and I see smoke or steam appearing from under the wing (S1 turbo header tanks have a extra outlet by the cap which has a pipe going into the wing area) Thoguht nothing of it as the car was fine not overheating or anything. Pulled up steam stopped, went home all seemed ok.

Went to go pick the missus up all seemed fine just a lot of white smoke. Then when ever i was pulling over to drop her friends off my car was running lumpy, like it was on 3 but would clear after a bit of a drive and there was a shedload of white smoke.

Got it home all semed ok. bit concered with all thats gone on now car runs lumpy on start up and the water system seems pressurized.

I have been told by two sources that my headgasket is fucked! No oil in the water or water in the oil. It seems to be pressurising the system as I see activity in the header tank straight after start up.

Anybody got any ideas???? Is it more terminal???

Cheers Lads/Ladies

 

oil and water mix if the gasket has failed between oil way and water jacket.
if the gasket has failed between a fire ring and the water jacket it will loose its compression into the coolant causing symptoms you describe, but the oil and water stay separate.

 

so why is it itermittent??? gonna change the gasket anyway tommorow night to be sure. Dont you love RS's could it be somehting more sinister?

 

Almost 99.9% definately head gasket.

Its all very well fitting a new one, but really u should be having the head skimmed, or at very least checked on a flat edge.

And also, head gaskets rarely fail for no apparent reason, you need to spend some money and have a rolling road session done, i bet its running lean!

 

Safechav I thought you might reply to my post. I swapped the headgasket over last night. A water way between bores 3&4 had failed pushing water into the bore. Looks like it has been faulty for a while.

The old gasket was a Felpro item. I have heard they are only good for 10,000miles I have done 13,000 so not bad at all. Had a chat with the guys at Power Engineering who have told me that they never use Felpro as they fail too easily and that Ford standard gaskets are fine up to 250ish bhp.

Car is alos running to rich as I have had deposits of black soot on my pistons which I didnt have time to clean.

So all is solved. I checked the head and block with a flat edge and no warping at all. Car never overheated thats what I could never explain!!

Anyway car is now off the road till after christmas as I kinda rushed the swap over and I want to do it again properly.

This time standard Ford Gasket and I may be adding a few extra mods to get me to 300bhp on a metering unit.

May have to speak to Ahmed Bayjoo about a chip that will let me boost over 20psi!!!

Cheers Lads for your help.

 

Indeed Ford and Payen gaskets seem to be the bees knees. Christian was running 32psi on a standard gasket.

Your always guna have some carbon deposits thats inevitable! What colour are the plugs?

Being perfectly honest mate, you will do EXTREMELY well to throw the metering head at a wall/in the bin/at someone u dont like etc etc and fit EFI.

Altrhough i appreciate its a Series 1 so you may not want to but in terms of practicality and reliability........EFI is the winner hands down

 

Yes I know the old war abour MFI or EFI for my car. But I want to preserve the S1 as I want to go concourse with it one day. I will push the metering unit set up as far as I can I know my engine is capable of at least 300 BHP with all the mods and I need to get it set up by Motorsport Developments.

The deposits were larger than I had seen on any previous engine I have repaired. Plugs have been black for a while. I got it set up previously by PJ Motorsport and I think he has set the fuelling too high.

My MOT & Tax are up in Feb so it may be the case that I drive it as is for the mo. (its not my daily driver any more!) Change the gaskets again before the MOT and get it set up by Motorsport after Christmas.

I am also getting Married on the 23rd Dec so I am on a ban by the missus for working on the cars.

Only problem I have now is loosing oil or burning oil. I didnt get a chance to check the turbo while I was changing the gasket so that will need to come off to. I just need to save up for it!.

It seems to have been better after I played with the breather system. I blocked off the metering unit and let it vent to atmosphere. works a lot better and the car breaths easier now.

I am looking for a new project in the new year so I may have a stab at and EFI setup. I dunno yet but I could.

This time I want to get to National Day!

 

Its hard to get good fuelling throughout the rev range on a MFI car.

Being perfectly honest, having the "i might just drive it as it is"a ttitude is only going to cause you more problems its not good to be running around running rich.

Do yourself a favour and just put it away until you've saved up, your just guna cause more damage and up the bill more.

Theres nothing saying you can't take off all the original parts and keep them and EFI it, you can always swap it back.

 

Car has been set up so is cool. I will have the cash after Christmas. All is cool. just need to book it in to motorsport.