Hey all, my cars done another head gasket (I only replaced it recently) and it's coming through the water jacket/cylinder again. I was just wondering how safe is it to drive the car in this state could I possibly bend a valve? I'm not fussed if anything happens to the conrods/pistons my concern is the valves! I got no money for the job at the moment every time I go to drive the car in the morning the coolant tank is empty I'll take the cap off and poof! All the coolant comes back up it's still there, the air from the cylinder is being pushed into the system and settling at the highest point of the system aka the header tank (coolant tank stinks of lpg too) as the car sits cooling down overnight. Pretty safe to say the head is buggered.

I'm worried about the overall pressure on the cooling system but mainly my freshly reco head and the high spec valves I got installed that cost a me mint!! The pressure might've stuffed the radiator already as there's coolant around it I've unscrewed the cap hoping this will relieve pressure while I use the car to get from A to B, not sure how that works on the combustion chamber side of things however. Would it still be safe to drive the car like this?

I can't believe my luck with this car I'm thinking of putting the head in storage and just fitting an AU motor this time round the bottom end is tired and the cooling system is corroded, it seems an easy and cost effective solution. I see a lot of AU motors for cheap already out of the car which seem ideal but I'm worried about the fact they've been sitting dry for weeks/months could this mean all the gaskets like the head gasket will need to be replaced? I plan to do the rear main for preventative maintenance but my main concern is the major gaskets like head/sump/timing case etc.

If this was your car and you only had around $300-$500 to keep it going long term what would you do in this situation? Any help would be much appreciated!! cheers

If you've spent a mint in the head just try and find another motor and use it's bottom end.

IMO If it does lock up from water in the cylinders it will bend a rod before the valve suffers any damage.

I was thinking of that but the auto seems to be on the way out too so I was thinking of grabbing an AU wreck and just ripping the guts out of it (cut front rad support off slide motor out etc) and use the whole lot. I was worried about what happens when the gaskets/motor sit dry for so long but people want $200-$400 just for the motor out the car alone and I could get the whole au for that price, grab some goodies as well as make most the money back!! Also I've got all this eczema crap on my hands I can barely clench my fists atm and I haven't been able to work on the car properly for while, taking the head off is a greasy job I was really hoping to avoid the whole head gasket job all together. If I put a whole new reco bottom end in i'm still left with having to do the head on it on top of the engine conversion. The au swap seems like half the work which suits me at the moment.

Thing is although tired the current bottom end seems ok I could possibly just do the gasket again budget style opposed to the au motor swap, and eventually find a reco block, I don't think the blocks warped or anything the head blew again because I used this stagg sealer crap which didn't cure properly, it blocked the water passage behind the welsh plug and the car overheated as a result, the moment I pulled over I saw all the stagg crap splurged all over my nice new header tank I was swearing at myself the next day when I started it and it ran rough for the first few seconds, headgasket gone, must've created a hotspot in that section of the block and warped the head. It doesn't seem like a good idea to use the block again as much as I like too the cooling system in it is rooted but I'm very tempted atm for an easy fix. But I'm worried about how much stagg crap could be possibly left blocking up the system. I'd love to put a reco block in it with the reco head and have it done once and for all but it's gonna take me a while to find the right one the au might be a good inbetweener. Lot of thinking to do.


I've been driving it with the radiator cap off and this seems to have "cured" my hydraulic lock/over-pressurization of the cooling system, drives great besides the thermostat opening at a much hotter temperature. It was pushing coolant out all around the radiator but now the air just escapes through the cap . I wonder how long I can keep this up for.. feels like I could drive it forever like this no worries haha.

AU motors are not a bolt in job for any E series. Better off either replace the head gasket or find a good el motor.