Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[pazdude]

hi all
heads gasket has gone on my td xj
garage said it would cost over a grand £600 ish for parts the rest labour

has anybody on here done this job to give advise on wots involved?

thanks ian

[MK1]

A few years ago I did the head gaskets on a similar VM diesel engine fitted to a Rover 825.

The gaskets were expensive at £35 each so the bloke said just do the one which is blowing, which made the job alot harder.

By the time you add all the gaskets, pressure testing, skimming, valve regrind, new bolts etc, then yes, head work is very expensive. Most garages will not do a 'part job'.

The bloke I did some work for was a bit of a dealer and wanted everything doing cheap, hence only one gasket.

[Dave69]

not being daft but do a search on here as this topic has been covered alot of times with the relevant responses.

the vm specialist is who you need to talk to for parts then just pay the labour at the garage. If you have individual head gaskets then it's not cost effective just to do the failed one. for the work involved epsecially to torque sequence just tak all the heads off and perform a complete job.

one thing you have to remember is that these engines especially the pre facelift are notorious for porus heads which will fail after 60k miles. if the engine has been running fine prior to failure then you might be able to get away with just swapping the gasket for the individual ones and not touch the valves. there is the option of a single head gasket but this will require the end load plates being machined to acomodate the gasket size.

 as for time length to complete the job it can be done from start to finish in 6hrs (done it myself).

i would be surprised if the parts were more than £600 but this will depend upon the heads being ok.

sounds a bit negative but when one of these engines has a gasket failure then it hurts in the pocket. hence at times it is cheaper to runb a petrol.

talk to the vm specialist and he will give you a good price on what it will cost you in regards to parts and what you need to do.




http://http://ccgi.vmspecialists.plus.com/release/prices.php?id=8847352a28ba9490cba82a3088

[greggmo]

buy another xj for pennies of the bay and drop the lot in. you will also be able to bag a good stock of spares

[Bishops Finger]

Thing is with the VM unless you know its been maintained to spec from the start a scrapper may only add to the lottery of problems..

Remember this VM guy getting a good write up in Jeep World...post Mr Askew

[Dave69]

i had a mk1 diesel. which was a great car but the engine was a nightmare.

the engine was rebuilt four time in one year.

1 head went...new head and rebuilt.

2 hydraulic lifter failed....top end rebuild and new lifters

3 another head failed...new head and rebuild

4 con rod bolt let go...totalled engine


bought a petrol and saved money


The jeep i bought had some history but the engine isn't as tough as the petrol. I'd have another but i would convert it to a T4 vw lump as this would compliment the jeep plus they dont have head failures.

[pazdude]

thanks for the replies
me and my mate are going to strip it down at the weekend
and see wots gone
i thought the motor had only 1 gasket?
anyhow will be phoneing the vm specilist for pricing the parts ect

[Dave69]

one thing to bear in mind the exhaust manifold is a bstward to get off mainly due to one nut. No.3 exhaust port there is a nut that can only be turned just a face at a time which seems to take forever

[garyf]

one thing to bear in mind the exhaust manifold is a bstward to get off mainly due to one nut. No.3 exhaust port there is a nut that can only be turned just a face at a time which seems to take forever

bit of advise, put the platers on before you start

[The Smiths]

one thing to bear in mind the exhaust manifold is a bstward to get off mainly due to one nut. No.3 exhaust port there is a nut that can only be turned just a face at a time which seems to take forever

A tip for this one is to remove the inlet manifold - use grips to take the studs out when the nuts have been removed.

A boomerang spanner then fits in nicely and is easy to remove.

I had to get it off twice in a week due to manifold leaks and MOT :-(