1.6 petrol meteor 1991

[david troughton]

I have oil in the radiator (1.6 petrol meteor) but no white smoke or loss of power. I did have oil escaping from an allen bolt on cylinder head. It has been suggested that the head gasket has failed between water and oil channels. Any advice? its done approx. 110.000 miles. Anyone know anything about Stealseal?
Thanks in anticipation.
David

[rutter123]

I think the only proper solution is headgasket replacement, I suspect yours has failed between the oil/waterways not necessarily losing any compression on any cylinder.
Fairly straightforward job will also give you a chance to check the head for cracks in a worst case scenario.

[David]

You've not really given much information to go off.

Firstly, how long have you owned the car, and has it been looked after?

Have you ever changed the water or are you sure that there wasn't oil in the radiator beforehand?

Does the car have an oil cooler on the engine? (behind the oil filter, if fitted).

If it doesn't have a oil cooler and the water was clean (at a specific point in the short past), then one explanation is that the head gasket has indeed gone. I'm not sure if this engine has wet liners fitted, but usually if these go, then you end up with it dumping all the water into the oil. (I'm sure someone will be along soon that's more familiar with the details of the petrol engines).

If it's the head gasket, then as Mr Rutter has stated, it's not a particularly difficult job to replace it, provided that you have all the tools and parts. If you can find an open engineering works then I would suggest having the head skimmed too, just to be sure that it's a perfect seal. If you have a Haynes manual or access to one, I would suggest reading through it so you know what you're up against.

I've never heard of Stealseal, but if it's anything like radweld, then don't bother; it'll do more harm than good. You'd be better off just doing the job properly the first time rather than using that, then having to replace the head gasket anyway, then having to replace the radiator, heater matrix & tap, and possibly thermostat and some small hoses too because it's blocked them up.

Hope that helps.