Morning all,

Recently replaced the head gasket, thermostat and valve stem oil seals on the missus focus. Its a 2 litre zetec.

All seems fine when the car is stood still idling. However, when she took it round the block to get some petrol she noticed a burning smell. Initially I thought it would just be excess sealant burning off etc. When I opened the bonnet the header tank was just about empty and there was coolant sprayed all over the underside of the bonnet on the belt side of the engine.

Topped it up, let it idle for about 20 minutes. All was fine, no leaks of any sort. I then took it up the road and back and the same thing happened again.

I'm fresh out of ideas as to why its only losing coolant when driving but not when stood still idling.

Any advice or ideas would be a massive help.

Thanks.

 

Why did it need a HG, was the head skimmed, these are famous for having fisure cracks which will cause what you have.
tabetha

 

Thermostat housing seal failed. had a decent leak. ran it with next to no coolant and and cooked the gasket.

Yeah, the head was skimmed.

I'm assuming it'll need a new head then.......bollocks

Cheers for the info.

 

s/h head would be cheapest if crack doesn't go with skim.
tabetha