head gasket on rover 216 w reg

[paultintin]

surprise surprise i have a rover which im pretty certain has blown the head gasket. the inside of the oil cap has a creamy substance on it and the header tank needs topping up regularly. is it ok to drive around for a few days as garage can't fit it in until next week? also theyv'e qouted me �500 for the head tobe skimmed,antifreeze,biodegresed,modified head gasket set,also to change cambelt it sounds reasonable but just checking if anyone else thinks its a fair price or not.
many thanks for anyhelp in advance

[david1702198]

reasonable price if you ask me. i wouldnt drive it around if its losing water internally or externally as you will overheat it to the point that you will damage th piston rings and lose all compression. engine s h a g g e d

[paultintin]

the temp is ok the fan kicks in fine. it drives fine no strange sounds at all. there is a small amount of smoke coming from exhaust (especially when starting or using high revs)plus water coming out of exhaust but cant be totally sure if its just condensation or water getting in the system. thanks for the advice

[gsr600]

you will always get some water from the tailpipe
it's a common thing on ANY rover that i have followed
is the car worth that sort of money being spent on it?

[paultintin]

yeah its pretty much mint condition. its been in the family from new and has never wanted for anything. its got full service history and other than this possible head gasket fault has never let us down. ive had one guy take a look and he's not completely convinced its actually blown the gasket. theres is no water in the oil but the header tank is a bit gunky but he says if it boiled the water this could be because of that but we'll see

[Gilbern]

I blew (and I mean blew!) the headgasket on a Rover 200 a few years ago.
The first sign that something was wrong was the internal heater started blowing cold air despite being turned up to full. What's your heater doing?

[paultintin]

heater works fine the more i look at it the more im not 100% sure if its gone. there is gunky stuff in the header tank but it aint oil. and its not using as much water as i originally fault. abit of a top up once every month and i mean only a bit.

[JimmyK]

The stuff in the header tank is probably emulsified oil/water, which is often a sign of the head gasket being on it's way out.
If it really is only losing a small amount of water you could chance it, but if you do a lot of miles it is a bit of a risk.
Only you can decide how significant the impact of the risk could be!

[JimmyK]

Sorry... the stuff in the oil filler cap is emulsified oil/water.
The likelihood of getting that can be worsened by only doing short trips when the engine doesn't warm up much.

[paultintin]

thanks for the help. had it confirmed today that it is the head gasket. the mechanic said that the water is still cycling properly which is a good thing but i can either pay �500 and get it done now or run the car into the ground he reckoned it might last up to 8 months depends how lucky i get. So i think i will just pay for it tobe done the cars too good just to scrapped.