Head gasket nightmare

ashp · 2024-07-23 19:03:21

Hello all!

Hoping for a bit of advice here regarding head gasket failure on the 2.0hdi rhz engines.

So, my van had a coolant problem right from when I bought it. It would overpressure the system and piss coolant out of the expansion tank. Running temperature was always stable.
I would lose 1-2L of coolant over a 150km drive.
Initially I changed the cap and then the tank thinking that might be the problem but still the same. I also changed the thermostat and went on a wild goose chase trying to bleed the system after that
was suggested. Hoses felt like they had air inside.

In the end I decided to buy a testing kit and sure enough, the blue liquid turned green indicating exhaust gasses in the coolant system. In other words, the head gasket was leaking (I assume).

Now is where things get spicy.

I live in Sweden, in the middle of nowhere, 80km from the nearest small town. So for the most part I do my own work on vehicles when I can.
Given the ridiculous design of these vans and how the engine is positioned I had to remove it to gain access to the head. Engine is now all over the floor, head removed with most of it out apart from the injectors which I will figure out.
There is potentially a place nearby that can skim it ready for a new gasket.

However, a few weeks back two of these vans came up for sale for 2500sek (£180) One is a rust box but it's running now, the other one was "non runner, electrical fault" which turned out to be the starter motor and is also now running fine. My plan was just to pull an engine out of one and slap it in my van. For that price I thought it's a no brainer and would save me the agro of my engine repair not working or something.

Can you believe it, BOTH of them also have exhaust gas in the damn coolant and are showing the same symptoms as my van. Hard hoses, bubbling into the expansion tank etc. Just my luck right there.

What I would like to know from anyone on here is, is this a common thing and am I missing something? I can only assume the head gaskets have failed on all three but now I'm thinking why have they? Is there a design flaw somewhere that causes this or a particular part that always fails?
The thing I really don't want to do is put it all back together and then it's the same because I didn't fix the actual problem.
I was thinking maybe it could be egr related but from what I can see the egr doesn't have a cooler and just feeds directly from the exhaust manifold into the intake manifold.

the vans are 04 06 and 06.

Hope someone can shed some light on this headache.

Happy to provide more info.

I should also state that I'm no mechanic, just an enthusiastic idiot with nobody to tell me no...

Cheers

OAT · 2024-07-24 11:57:35

I don't know these engines at all but it does seem incredibly unlucky that you have three with the same failure, even if they were known to be prone to head failure. (And I don't know that they are).

Have you checked the head gaskets on the two "new" engines?

Are you sure there is no EGR cooler?...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoi4h8EZPr8

RegW · 2024-07-24 14:12:16

Without knowing the age mileage and history, its hard to say if they're prone to head gasket failures or not
I've not heard of it, maybe like a lot of vans they're more prone to neglect and abuse by
non owning drivers?

In your case as you've already got the lump out, I'd check and skim the head and give it a good inspection all
round before refitting as you at least know some of its history.

Last edited by RegW (2024-07-24 14:13:01)

JohnDragonMan · 2024-07-25 00:22:51

usually people that can skim heads can also pressure test heads too.. make sure theres no cracks.

it has been know on other cars that if a cheaper water pump is used it can break up and cause really poor flow through the system.

in regards to the reliability, we scrapped a E7 Eurocab which is basically the Peugeot Expert variant of this van. same engine and everything. that had over 600,000 miles on it and the 1 owner from new taxi driver told me that other than 50k mile cam belt, 6k mile oil, and 3 year coolant changes the engine head never needed any maintenance. however the oil pump was changed at around the 410k mark as it was taking a while for the oil light to go out after starting. the engine had some oil leaks from the rocker cover gasket and the turbo core was changed at 300k miles, the alternator had to be replaced twice and the in tank lift pump also twice and it needed 4 clutches. apparently the engine was never off. as soon as someone's shift was over it another person jumped in the seat to take over.

this does show the theory of cold cycles does kill an engine quicker but it also does show that they are rather good engines.

the reason why it was scrapped was because of rust.

seriously, you should have seen the service history it had. it was as thick as a "mans guide to understanding women" book.... hard back.

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#1 2024-07-23 19:03:21

Head gasket nightmare

#2 2024-07-24 11:57:35

Re: Head gasket nightmare

#3 2024-07-24 14:12:16

Re: Head gasket nightmare

#4 2024-07-25 00:22:51

Re: Head gasket nightmare

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