Hi All

I have found my fairlane is leaking from arround where it joins to the engine. i have replaced the gasket and used gasket sealent and have found a bead of water forming arround that gasket again.

i am not sure what i can do to fix this leak,

I am trying to avoid using stop leak i would rather fix it properly.

Regards

Barry

Barry,

I'm guessing you cleaned up the old gasket off the thermostat housing etc properly? It's possible but unlikely the thermostat housing could be warped?

What engine are we talking?

You need to file the surface flat on the housing.

this is the 4l i6 engine.

I compleatly removed the old gasket and made both serfices flat before installing the new gasket along with some form a gasket.

the part i find most frustrating is this should not be happening to a newly remanufactured engine. i can not understand how gem engines have done everything so poorly that i am getting all these problems with just 40000km on the engine. is that all the life i can expect out of a new engine from them?

so far this is what has gone wrong with it.
1 Sump is under torqued
2 Rocker assembly was over torqued
3 lash adjusters that where supposedly replaced all failed
4 coolent leaks.

also this engine has been serviced at ford every 10000k and i do not thrash it.

Regards

I'd never leave oil in for 10,000km for a start.....ever.

that is the recommended service interval of the car. that is not the reason for the issue so there is no way this can be turned around to make it look like my fault for something that is CLEARLY the fault of gem engines.

I have a 2008 honda civic that has done 80000km that has only been serviced 9 times in its life. it is not developing oil leaks or noisy lifters or coolant leaks. and before anyone says it is a new car. in essence this is a new engine. it has only done 40,00km it is unreasonable to expect that there should be this much trouble with a new engine that by the way was remanufactured after my civic was manufactured so realisticly it is newer than my civic.

You need to read the fine print that they, the manufacturer, hide in the Owner's Handbook/Manual.
If a certain amount of Km's aren't reached in a certain time frame, then servicing is more regular....and the same for door to door driving (couriers, taxi, etc), also require more servicing.
My wifes car is a 2001 Magna....serviced every 5,000km or 6 months....that engine looks like it was built yesterday, it is that clean inside....is very good on fuel, and goes like stink.......oil is cheaper than engine rebuilds.
This is it with 120,000 km on it.....replacing the rocker cover gaskets.

 

 

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again service interval is not the problem in the past 2 years the car has been i for servicing about 5 times and the last 10000km service was done about the 4th month this year. the inside of my enginge looks brand new.

none the less it does not matter the service interval. these parts should not be failing. even ford said they should not be failing on a new engine, one of the people from the service department said "no the lash adjusters should last at least 200000km and 40,000km is not even close to the life expectancy" the same person from ford also said "i can confirm this car has been serviced correctly and to the service interval"

so i am sorry but that is just not the problem. besides the civic has lived a lot harsher life service wise where it has mised services and gone past the service interval by a year and there has been no problems. the engine is a lot more complex in that car too so there is more to go wrong.

also i remember from my time working at the law society that i should be able to call them on the expected lifetime of the engine regardles of the warrenty. it has only now reached the 40000km on the warrenty so it has in effect started playing up within the warrenty anyway. also they would have to proove that it was a lack of servicing that cased this failure, and they simply will not be able to do so considering it was never bult to the orriginal ford specifications in the first place, and they would be in effect arguing with ford as this car has been serviced by ford only no one else. a little difficalt to argue that one i think.

by the way also when i was talking to ford they mentioned the engine was purchased through repco so i bailed them up and they sold me the thermistat housing at a dicsount with a new gasket. i intend to replace the housing compleatly. i will sand the service off so it is shiny again on the engine and will be using the gasket compound and allowing it to set overnight dry. before re asembling it

Hi,

It could be the metal is porous, or there is a crack that opens with heat. I remember 20 years ago we did a Jackaroo, and the metal in the head was porous. It had been Reco'd, and apparently they " tanked " the head which removes a sealant they use when making the head. What I was told anyway. My point is make sure you know where the leak is, just because it looks to be coming from the thermo if you dont find the actual cause you may replace many parts and waste time.