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MG ZR ZS ZT Technical - Head Gasket Failure

I currently own an MGF VVC and have just suffered my first HGF.

A colleage is awaiting delivery of a new ZR which will have the same engine. Has the problem been solved with the inherent HGF or is it something that he needs to be aware of.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Regards.

Andy
Andy Beard

It predominantly only affected MGFs, apparently due to the engine bay size and location. Some incidence on Elise, very little on front engined models. A fix (steel head locating dowels instead of plastic, and an improved head gasket) were introduced around May 2001.
David

Out of a few K cars I have owned, it was a VVC coupe that gave me the "joy" of this problem.
Chris

...except there is no such model as a VVC coupe.
David

Sorry David, there is! From 1996 the Rover 200 Coupe was available as a 1.8 VVC to replace the Turbo and NASP versions of the T series engine.

Gareth
Gareth Kidman

Aahh, sorry all, wasn't in Rover mode, I was confining my thoughts to the section title, IE MG Z saloons
David

LOL, i'll let you off, it was after midnight...

Gareth

PS that gearbox is good..
Gareth Kidman

All

Many thanks, for your advice.

Regards.

Andy
Andy Beard

Dear Andy,

I have a VVC F which had an HGF at 14000 miles the week before we were planning to order our ZS120. As you can imagine, I thought about this long and hard. Although no one knows exactly why, it does seem to be the cooling system of the F at fault - engine bay or water - dunno. HGF is almost certainly rarer in every other type of car the 1.8 K-series has gone into - including the rear-engined Elise.

After early 2001, all K-series 1.8's have had an uprated HG which is intended to solve the problem. I assume that this is also going into all the Z cars too.

So. in short, we ordered the ZS and it's great. Absolutely faultless too!
David Bainbridge

Hi

I have mentioned this on the mgf thread ,I have had an engine transplant on my London taxi,2.7 nissaan diesel to 1.8 rover petrol/lpg I do about approx 30k a year.What can I expect regarding hgf.The company that did the conversion say'that there is a cab they converted that has done 120k.

Many thanks

Simon
Simon Connolly

I am quite familiar with K series engined cars that have 130000 plus miles and the worst thing that happens there is the hydraulic tappets do become rattly.

The thermal cycling with a FWD car is far less severe than with the rear engined MGF, plus the engine bay temps are also generally lower. Head gasket problems are not a problem specifically relating to just the gasket but is a symptom of the other issues connected with the cooling system and how the engine amd materials react to these varying thermal inputs.

Over the last few years there has been a number of small but helpful modifications to the engine and ancillary design all helping to reduce the incidence of failure and this has seen a very, very marked drop for cars manufactured 1999 on. The 2001 change saw a small modification to the gasket, but by far the most important change in my view was replacing the head to block locating dowels with steel rather than plastic. The down side will be seen several years down the line when removal of these will be almost impossible due to interaction between the steel and alloy.

I have now started to run a tap down the steel dowels before fitting as if I have to remove the head in the future I have the advantage of being able to use a bolt to assist in the dowel removal.

Rog
Roger Parker

<<The thermal cycling with a FWD car is far less severe than with the rear engined MGF, plus the engine bay temps are also generally lower.>>

Old problem. Old solution.

Back in the days when double decker buses moved to rear engine configuration, many suffered chronic overheating problems. It was totally cured by (Leyland subsidiary Bristol) using a permanatly coupled fan, drawing air over the engine bay and out thru a side vent - I have modified my wife & daughters '97 VVC F by similar arrangement using a modified Metro cooling fan, theromstatically/<20 mph controlled, with appropiate ducting to exhaust thru the rear venting. Air is turned over in the bay every 12 secs, 71k, coolant dropped and replaced annually by myself - No problems. What's an HGF??
ace

Ace,

>>> using a modified Metro cooling fan, theromstatically/<20 mph controlled, with appropiate ducting to exhaust thru the rear venting <<<

An "Ace" ploy if I may say so ...... :o))

Thanks too for the Buses mod info. I often wondered why when stopped in traffic alongside one of those "Atlantean" type rear engined odd-bus thinggies, I always got a continuous blast of hot air through those engine vents .......
John McFeely

Thank you for the compliment,John.

FYI Bristol used to drag the air from a vent between decks, and exhaust thru the side. They also repositioned the rad. to the front. Nowadays, with greater emphasis on sound proofing and encapsulation, just about all manufacturers employ something similar - but many now "blow down" thru the bottom of the engine bay, to avoid the phenomina you, or indeed pedestrians, encountered. Look out for this on a leafy road when autumn comes!
ace

This thread was discussed between 29/08/2002 and 22/09/2002

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