I've been nursing a blown head gasket that has a slow leak between 5 and 6 cylinders, since late 2007. It just has to make it until next Tuesday when it gets fixed once and for all.

But in the mean time I've been doing well, it's been risky, but the oil and coolant haven't mixed, and I've just had to top them up, and continue with the normal oil changes during this period.

And. I thought I was doing ok. So well in fact that I even got a little too relaxed on regular checks, as it hardly took any oil or coolant last time, about 3-months ago.

This morning I backed out of the garage, got out to close the garage door. And it's then that I heard the loud, tell tale signs of very low oil levels, with a ticking noise boardering on a knocking sound.
It didn't go away. So I stopped the engine, popped the bonnet. And found no coolant in the overflow. And had to pour just over 2 litres of oil in to get it up to the full line.
The oil however is still clean, nothing has mixed yet.
I shudder to think how long the oil has been that low.

Now she runs beautifully again, smooth with power, and quiet from outside. No ticking or knocking.

Be careful and vigilant guys. Don't assume everything is fine just because the engine is running, with normal oil pressure and coolant temp like I had.
If your nursning it until you have the funds, keep checking those levels!

Funds??
Gaskets and bolts are <$200.....
Torque wrench if you dont have one - $50...

Yeah im nursing one atm because i know the head is stuffed and im getting everything sorted to put an au motor in or el (undecided). I am using about 2 ltrs water every 3 days.

Yeah I was going to do it myself, but heard too many horror stories of broken chaain guides and a gasket that doesn't last 200 km's before she goes again due to yeah, a bad do-it-yourself job.

But I found someone who's an ex Ford mechanic, that is doing it cash in hand all up for around $480.00. Head skimmed, everything...

$480 is an awesome price.

I nursed mine for a while, and on the morning it was due to go to the mechanics, it hydro-locked on my then-GF shortly after startup She was p****d when I told her to unscrew the cap, and it bukkaked coolant all over her!

Yeah reckons $480.00, but we'll see next week!

He'll still be making 200 odd dollars pretty easy there, even with getting the head decked.

And he would've earned it!

I'll let you know how it goes.

spend a bit more and get the head reco'd...

full proper pressure test/crack test (very common if run low on coolant or no corrosion inhibitor used) + suface + face valves/cut seats + new valve stem seals + full sand blast cleaning.....

should be around $300 and is money well spent....especially if its done close to 200,000 k's

legend mate, i just checked on mine after reading this thread, and sure enough both oil and coolant levels were on 'add'. So i topped them both up. Also noticed a loose header bolt which i tightend..

mines only been going for about 6 months, and its visible from the outside(coolant leaking down the block on #5 & 6)

Time to finish off the au i6 build

This must be one of the most common problems, i had it in my original engine but that had a block crack, so we ditched that and now its weaping out tue extractor side of the engine, so we gir the gasket/s, bolts and borrowed a tourqe wrench for close to 150, which i thought was quite good.

And as for the oil and water dilema, no oil burn or usage, but water alot, but today i found that was a pin hole leak in the radiator when it gets up to temp, so thats probly most of the water usage.

My radiator had a pinhole leak on the passenger side plastic tank down the seal.
Just run it with no radiator cap, no pressure in the system therefore no leak!
Just dont thrash it too much lol.
I did this for like a month because I CBF doing a 10min radiator swap lol. And mines a manual so I didnt even have trans lines to play with lol.

Run a radiator crap cleaner through your system before you swap rads as well.

My low coolant sensor must be rooted again too, which I'm not happy about. My overflow was empty and I had no indicator.

for every one with gaskets weaping water, pull the rocker cover off, crack each head bolt off and retorque them one at a time. %50 of the time the weap will stop.