valves hitting piston? - Saxperience

daniel_johno · 7th February 2010, 19:35

Hi,
Im new to the forum.
I recently bought a 1999 westcoast which was going to scrapped. Ive repaired all it failed on when it was MOT'd except the high emmisions.
I changed the lamdba but it was still running rough. I then noticed the sound of running water behind the dash and also the smell of petrol in the oil and mayonaise on the oil cap. It all hinted at the head gasket so I pulled it off today to change it on the chance it was leaking.

Although the head gasket had no obvious signs of damage the pistons have marks on them where it looks like the valves (inlet i think) has been hitting. I have attachd pics of the marks. Do the 1.4 pistons have cut outs for the valves? You can see in the pic of the head the valves have a mark on the top edge where you can see where they have had contact although they dont look to be damaged and am unsure if i should refit the head and hope for the best or get a new one.

The engine itself was running quite lumpy at idle and when driving was low on power/hessitating at higher revs. Could the timing belt have jumped a tooth?

Any info much appreciated, thanks for looking

Daniel

pepper953 · 7th February 2010, 20:25

seems likely timing was out

Liam_ · 7th February 2010, 21:07

Pretty sure 8V pistons don't have valve cutouts. The inlet valves seem fine though, so maybe a snapped cambelt and a repair job at some point?

Was it a genuine Citroen head gasket that was fitted?

daniel_johno · 7th February 2010, 21:36

im not sure if it was a genuine head gasket but ill check tomorrow. I was going to rempve a valve tomorrow to see if it is sealing correctly. I wish id done a compression test before removing the head so id know if it was low on compression.

Is it adviseable to fit new head bolts when you change the gasket or can you re use the old ones?

Thanks for the replies

Daniel

Liam_ · 7th February 2010, 21:37

The head bolts are stretch type so can't be re-used. They are around £30 from memory, so not too bad.

xxo0pko0xx · 8th February 2010, 10:26

Timing on those pistons looks extremley out mate it probably has

xxo0pko0xx · 8th February 2010, 10:29

Since you have head off may as well change bolts gasket and waterpump to be on safe side

daniel_johno · 12th February 2010, 20:48

Thanks for all the replies.

I refitted the head with a new head gasket and new stretch bolts (bolts were £11 + vat!! bargain!!) and also fitted a new iming belt but as im on a budget never changed the water pump or tensioner!!!!!

The engine started first time and sounded great which pointed to the posibility that the timing was out before hand.
I left the engine running and a noise has developed from behind the timing belt which i think may be the tensioner or the water pump. the noise is only present on idle and goes away when the revs are raised. Is there a way to determine if it is the water pump or tensioner? The noise is quite loud.

There is still also alot of white smoke coming out the exhaust still but im not sure if it is just because the fuel in the car is over a year old and it hasnt been run properly in a year.
The car is booked in for an MOT on monday so I am now getting in a panic about getting it sorted in time.

Thanks for looking

Daniel

The car

daniel_johno · 13th February 2010, 18:15

Got some more work done in the west coast today.

I found the exhaust boxes were full of water but am not sure how it got there. It may have been from before I changed the head gasket or from sitting for a year with condensation building up but it was quite a lot of water. I got most of it drained out the exhaust but due to the baffles etc it is quite hard to remove it all so the emmisions are still coming out white. I am now unsure whether or not the water is coming from the engine still. I ran the engine with the exhaust off and it seems ok but im not 100% sure.

One of the cylinder liners moved up slightly when I was changing the head gasket but moved back into place ok. Would this caused any issues?

Thanks for looking

Daniel

Slugshead · 13th February 2010, 18:54

The white stuff is just steam mate, leave it run and it should all evaporate

But you do have the issue with whats the condition of the inside of the boxes, rust wise!

the cylinder sleeves are meant to come out, you can swap and change them like on old landrovers and in lorries

just make sure they are back down in place before you tighten up the head again