Head Gasket Failure

During our trip to the Montreal Meeting 2002 in Hann. Münden, Germany, I noticed after half of the way the rising water temperature. Beeing in an area of road construction with no escape on a side-strip possible, with heavy traffic around us, we decided to open the heating and try to reach a service area. When we did, we opened the hood: the coolant was spraying out of the surge tank!

The fan was not running, so there was insufficient water in the radiator. We let the car cool down and noticed that the surge tank was full and the radiator empty. We filled up the missing water and went back on the road.

After several stops we managed to reach Hann. Münden very late and discussed the Probem with other owners.

To make a long story short: One of the head gaskets I used for my engine revision was bad, maybe because it was old or something else! I tried to pull the heads and repair the beast with the engine inside, but this was really fagging. So we took out the rest of the engine again!

Now I installed the gasket manufactured by ELRING. There are some differences between the gasket from the Victory Set and the Elring ones, especially the dimension of the water aperture (see below). Notice the damage caused by the water in cylinder four, too.