Possible head gasket leak

[Mr-sexo]

]Hi there i am new here i am 18 and enlgish and live in spain and i bought my saxo a year ago on english plates its a 1.1 from 2002 but on 51 plates its got a Savage exhaust with ajustable end to make it sound more "beefy" :wacko: it needs a timing belt badly its never had it changed as far as i can see form the service history and has now done 94k miles and ever since i bought it i knew there was a slight oil leak but the guy i bought it from was convinced it was this little blue bolt thing i dont know what it does or why its blue

http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg294/00600500/?action=view&current=CIMG5862.jpg


so after a lot of looking arond my engine i saw this i dont know if its like a scratch from a screwdriver or what or if it is the actual head that is cracked

http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg294/00600500/?action=view&current=CIMG5866.jpg#!oZZ10QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2 Fs251.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg294%2F00600500% 2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DCIMG5861.jpg

also what is that little silver like cover over the alternator ?




as you can see the oil is running all over the place and im not sure if the sump is leaking aswell of it is just the oil leaking down it has been doing this for a long while now and the previous owner just left it and kept topping it up with oil

http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg294/00600500/?action=view&current=CIMG5866.jpg#!oZZ8QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s251.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg294%2F00600500%2 F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DCIMG5863.jpg

i have got a backstreet mechanic who can change the head gasket and timing belt for 150euros parts and labor i would do the timing belt my self but my dad said that i will ruin my engine and then carried on lectuing me i have ordered the haynes saxo manual but still hasnt arrived from Amazon but do u think that i sould do the job my self i am very handy with tools and have been messing with mates 50cc bikes for years i know there is a diffrence between a hairdryer and a car but i think i know what im doing :panic:





another thing if i start the car sometimes i have to have my foot on the accelarator or the engine will die but after a few miles the car seems fine also when this happens a mate has told me that quite a lot of smoke comes out the exhaust :fcuk:




also what confuses me is its a 2002 but on 51 plates and i cant work out what front brake pads it needs




also what is that little silver like cover over the alternator ?


also the handbrake isnt very effective untill the last 2 clicks

[Mr-sexo]

and the last few pics of the car

http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg294/00600500/?action=view&current=CIMG5869.jpg#!oZZ4QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s251.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg294%2F00600500%2 F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DCIMG5867.jpg

is it suppost to be rusty in there ?


http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg294/00600500/?action=view&current=CIMG5869.jpg#!oZZ5QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s251.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg294%2F00600500%2 F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DCIMG5866.jpg


http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg294/00600500/?action=view&current=CIMG5869.jpg#!oZZ6QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s251.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg294%2F00600500%2 F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DCIMG5865.jpg

see the oil on the exhaust and is that a water pump behind the exhaust ?

http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg294/00600500/?action=view&current=CIMG5869.jpg#!oZZ7QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s251.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg294%2F00600500%2 F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DCIMG5864.jpg

underneath the alternator

http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg294/00600500/?action=view&current=CIMG5869.jpg#!oZZ8QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s251.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg294%2F00600500%2 F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DCIMG5863.jpg



http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg294/00600500/?action=view&current=CIMG5869.jpg#!oZZ9QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2F s251.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg294%2F00600500%2 F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DCIMG5862.jpg

that blue bolt again

http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg294/00600500/?action=view&current=CIMG5869.jpg#!oZZ10QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2 Fs251.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg294%2F00600500% 2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DCIMG5861.jpg

that blue bolt again and the strange cover over alternator

http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg294/00600500/?action=view&current=CIMG5869.jpg#!oZZ11QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2 Fs251.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg294%2F00600500% 2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DCIMG5860.jpg


but overall quite clean

[Mr-sexo]

any ideas ?

[Mr-sexo]

still no body ? ? ?

[raunchz]

It's hard to say from the pics - I'd clean it all off and run the car for a bit so you can try and pinpoint it.

That blue bolt looks like it's not doing anything

[Liam_]

I've no idea why the blue bolt and metal spacers are there - never seen them on a Saxo before. I'd remove them (as they don't seem to serving any sort of purpose), use some degreaser to clean up the front of the block, and check for leaks every so often.

The area by the blue bolt is where the infamous TU head gasket leak normally is. To be honest, the engine doesn't even look that oily. If it doesn't drip on the floor/ use a lot of oil, I wouldn't worry about it.

[raunchz]

^^^ have to agree with the above - leak doesn't look too bad. Clean it up and monitor it

[baker556]

Think it looks normall tbh.

150 euros to change HG and timing belt is a very good price over here it would be about £300.