Head gasket change

[nicknak2010]

hi gents

Im going to attempt to do head gasket change on the weekend by myself, never done anything like this before im more of a basic mechanic doing brakes etc,

Reckon its easy enough for me to undertake this or will i need someone who knows what theyre doing

 

[bozothenutter]

Changing the gasket us probably easy.....it is the timing after that is hard!

 

[nicknak2010]

Changing the gasket us probably easy.....it is the timing after that is hard!

Are any special tools required or anything, or what should i consider before ripping it apart, as i am a bit of an amateur

 

[Gray]

First question.... Why are you changing the headgasket?

It's very rare they fail on the F4R engine.

 

[bozothenutter]

To be blunt......if you have to ask...don't attempt it.
It needs special tools to lock everything in place and such.....and timing it 'good enough' will lose you power and make it run crap.

 

[R3k1355]

Yea don't bother.

It's cheaper and quicker to replace the entire engine with a known good one.

 

[Djw John]

Without wishing to cause offence I think it sounds a bit above your skill level.

As said above its incredibly rare for them to fail on a F4R engine

 

[nicknak2010]

Might just leve it for a mechanic then, my dad would be sort of over seeing the operation here and there and he knows everything there is to know about an engine, not sure if he has any specific tools for a clio though if the locking tools arent universal,

The gasket is leaking or its the cylinder block and i know which one is more likely, as its losing water inside the engine, and it also got tested with some chemical reaction thingy and they said it was hed gasket

 

[R3k1355]

It needs a Clio specialist to do the job really, the tools are not universal and more annoyingly only the genuine Renualt ones actually work - pattern ones are s**t and f**k the job up.

You're probably looking at around a grand to do the head gasket and belts (because you'd be mental to stick old belts back on)
Probably half that to rip the old engine out and shove a known decent one in?

 

[Chrisgti6]

As everyone else has said, just drop a known decent engine in it. It will be cheaper.

 

[R3k1355]

Get in the 'Parts for Sale' section or put a post up in 'Wanted'

Make sure the seller has a good history with the engine, and if possible evidence of the belts being done fairly recently, expect to pay in the region of £200, leaving £300 or so for a mechanic to swap it over for you.

Spend a little extra here and get a cammed engine as a replacement
http://www.cliosport.net/threads/ph1-engine-with-197-cams-£300.796833/#post-11167944

Will need to swap over your inlet manifold and throttle body but no big deal, probs need mapping after to get the best power out of it.

 

[JB21]

Of topic slightly here but can you just drop a 172 engine into a 182 and change the header and remap for the extra 10hp?

 

[nicknak2010]

Mine is a 172 lads

All this work though is just annoying, having to change an engine becuse of a gasket,

And my car already runs pretty s**t anyways so maybe a remap would be good but im looking to spend minimal on this car as im tryna buy a skyline but would like it to be a decent car to sell onto somebody else

Probably whats best is to run it till it blows up

 

[Budgie]

Of topic slightly here but can you just drop a 172 engine into a 182 and change the header and remap for the extra 10hp?

Nope. Engine is pretty much identical. Exhaust mani is different.

Then, do 182's actually make 10bhp more? nah, it's just the name.

 

[R3k1355]

Mine is a 172 lads

All this work though is just annoying, having to change an engine becuse of a gasket,

And my car already runs pretty s**t anyways so maybe a remap would be good but im looking to spend minimal on this car as im tryna buy a skyline but would like it to be a decent car to sell onto somebody else

Probably whats best is to run it till it blows up

Engine could be running crap because of the headgasket issue, or it's had a dodgy cambelt change previously.
Did it run like crap before the head gasket started leaking?

 

[iimushroomzii]

Mine is a 172 lads

All this work though is just annoying, having to change an engine becuse of a gasket,

And my car already runs pretty s**t anyways so maybe a remap would be good but im looking to spend minimal on this car as im tryna buy a skyline but would like it to be a decent car to sell onto somebody else

Probably whats best is to run it till it blows up

Yeah just run it till its fucked then if you can be bothered, stick a new engine in.