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[DICK BOOTH]

Found that my xj vm engine has a warped block after many tests and attempts to stop the bloody thing overheating!

Steel Seal is a product designed to seal failed headgaskets, cracked and warped heads! After reading some reviews it seems to be 80% successful.

Haven't got the time or money to remove the engine completely and have the block skimmed, its only out by 3000ths of an inch. Cant go any tighter on the heads!

Don't want to put another engine in for fear of a lot of work to fine that vm has the same issues!

Anyone tried this product and what was the result?

Tar!

[dieselj20]

yep didt work never had a head gasket gone on a vm always cracked heads

[DICK BOOTH]

Had 2 VM's now, first one thermostat stopped working so it overheated and warped and cracked heads, replaced heads and gasket and then it was fine. Bought this one with an unknown cause of the problem, must've been baked to warp the block! no cracks anywhere, i reckon it's had some work done prior to my purchase! Fingers crossed it will work with such a small discrepancy!
 

[wildrover]

I wrote a thread all about it somewhere on here...

Bought a Jeep Cherokee diesal....I was in Poland the Jeep was in the UK , bought it after only seeing it on the internet , it was delivered to my sisters in the UK.. i flew over to collect it and drive it back to Poland....

Yep , it had an overheating problem , kept boiling the water , steam out of the exhaust..usual stuff...

The ferry was already booked from Hull to Holland , i was a bit pssst off to say the least...

A friend of my sisters suggested the steel seal stuff , i had serious doubts it would work , but i had no choice but to try...

Chucked the stuff in , followed the instructions , and to my amazement the problem went away...

Drove all the way to Poland with one eye on the temp guage , but it was fine....

Done thousands of miles since then , including two trips to Ukraine , and i may be going to Russia in it after new year...

So...for me...yes it works great....

[classicjeep]

My local motor factors sell this product......not used it myself........but they have sold approx. 12 units and no complaints !!

It has even worked on Rover  K series engines !!

You do have to follow the instructions to the letter, but it does seem to work !

[Dave69]

steel seal....k-seal all do the same thing but the product must be left in the coolant as it is constantly working to create a seal. It's not a one hit fix.

something the k series engine should have been sold with.  They did solve the head gasket issue but they made so much miney from the repairs it wasn't worth it

[classicjeep]

K-Seal has to be left in the system and is ok for other coolant leaks,  but Steel Seal works differently, it is not left in the system ,you must follow the instruction to the letter , best of all, they offer a money back guarantee!!

[wildrover]

Yes , i thought the steel seal had to remain in the coolant to constantly repair any leaks that may happen again , but not so...

I lost all my water , and thus the steel seal when my water pump fell to bits , so i checked with the guy who put it in to see if i should put more in...

He checked with the makers , and got back to me to say that the stuff had done its job , and i didn,t need to put any more in....

As i say , it worked for me....

[DICK BOOTH]

I'm gonna give it a go. cheers guys. wildrover thats a pretty reassuring story, a fair few miles too. good effort!

[jay140285]

Well, what's the worst that can happen.

Engine will need a complete strip down if you dont use the steel seal, so might as well give it a try.

[wildrover]

I guess there must be a limit to how much damage this steel seal can repair , but in my case it fixed the problem , and allowed me to do thusands of miles in a vehicle that would otherwise have been scrapped...

Mine is a 1997 Cherokee , so it wasn,t worth spending money on an engine rebuild...even if i had the money...which i didn,t...

Good luck with it...let us know how you got on...

Don,t rush the job...follow the instructions to the letter....  hope it works...!

[daved]

Ive used this stuff on a couple of engines. Without waffling on I would say short term quick fix, it works well. Long term it not so good, there is as said above , a limit to what it can and cant repair, there also seems to be a limit on how long it can hold that repair as certainly on the Ford cvh the symptoms and problems returned after about a thousand miles.


I would advise if your needs are short term bodge through to temp repair, go for it if its a long term fix theres no replacement for long term proper engineering.

Just my thoughts, definitely not a scientific evaluation. I generally use products like this to keep me going unitl I can effect a repair.

[DICK BOOTH]

I've applied seal steel and unfortunately i overheated again first run out although i followed the instructions to the letter. This leads me to believe theirs another underlying problem. I don't think the head or block is cracked as it holds pressure when hot and cold. Running out of ideas though!

[dieselj20]

drop the water pump have a look at the impeller see if its still attached to the shaft and got vane's

[DICK BOOTH]

It's had a new water pump matey and everything was checked. I've not yet replaced the expansion tank cap, think this is the likely suspect. Done everything else. Anyone know where i can find a 15+ psi rad cap for a 2.5 vm? crysler only supply them with the expansion tank at £84 plus VAT