VY coolant getting into combustion chamber head gasket, cracked head or valve?

[muso]

I have a VY wagon work horse car on LPG. It has lately started idling rough until warmed up, but has never used oil or needed coolant top up. Just got back from melbourne and it didn't miss a beat.....thank God!

Today I went to start it to come home from work but it wouldn't turn over, I thought it was a flat battery, but wasn't sure because the battery had plenty of boot in it. Well the RAA came and cranked the engine by hand and found it very hard to crank, turned out that water was getting into the combustion chamber and as we know water doesn't compress He got it running but it miss fired like mad and coolant steam was coming out the exhaust.....So it was Tow truck time, so it's sitting in my drive and I'm about to pull it down to see if it's just a head gasket (hopefully) or worse a cracked head or buggered valve. This is something that suddenly went, was fine when I drove it to work this morning so I'm thinking head gasket....which is not a difficult job for me. I did my head gaskets on my VX years ago and it was pretty simple, they are a pretty basic engine......I'm glad it isn't an Alloytec.

Ever since I've owned the car the engine has always idled a bit rough and been a bit rougher and noisier than I can remember my VX being but the VX was a lot newer than the VY is now.

Problem is the VY is on LPG so I don't know if I can remove the heads as easily as on a petrol only version which is really simple, I will probably end up taking it to our local mechanic but since it's sitting in the drive I'd really like to be able to fix it being such a basic engine. So my main question is would it be more likely to be head gasket, or valve, cracked head etc? Until it's pulled down I won't know but I'm just putting it out there!

Note: I went for the ecotec over the alloytec due to it being easier and cheaper to fix and still feel I've done the right thing

 

[vyseriesII]

Sounds like intake manifold gasket. It will make ur idle a bit ruffer if leaking air. You also get oil in your water on top of water in combustion chamber. They are known to fail after some time

 

[lowrider636]

Sounds like intake manifold gasket. It will make ur idle a bit ruffer if leaking air. You also get oil in your water on top of water in combustion chamber. They are known to fail after some time

yep that's what happened to my VY ..I noticed oil in the overflow bottle and sure enough ..inlet manifold gasket

 

[muso]

Wow thanks guys for the quick replies This Suddenly went rendering the car undriveable with coolant steam coming out the exhaust and running like a chaff cutter, it was fine this morning and ran like it always has since i got it a bit rough

I had a head gasket do that years ago with similar results, is there a way of determining that it's the inlet manifold gasket for sure? I'd hate to do both head gaskets to find that it was just the inlet manifold gasket!

I feel like an idiot now I have two cars that don't go.........one XR6 Turbo (I'm just doing the inlet manifold on that....funnily enough) and now by beloved old faithful VY wagon

Oh and another really important thing the RAA man said was that there was excess pressure build up in the radiator and hoses due to engine compression which sounds more like head gasket even if inlet manifold gasket failure can mimick symptoms.

 

[muso]

I've just checked the oil and it's a delightful light brown milky coffee colour.

 

[Jxfwsf]

Drain it (sounds like it's already done that itself) and rip the manifold off.
Pretty much have to cook one of them to do a head gasket, but a compression test won't hurt to show any other bad signs before tearing it down any further if it's not needed.

 

[muso]

I've pulled out the spark plugs, five a dry and normal but plug #6 right bank rear is soaked in coolant, could an inlet manifold gasket do that? I know a head gasket can. White coolant steam/smoke coming from the exhaust seems like head gasket, will do compression test.

 

[muso]

Ok, I've pulled the inlet manifold out pia of a job to inlet gasket although not brand new is pretty well intact with no signs of breaching between oil or water galleries. Just about to take the right side head off and see what's going on with cylinder #6 which sprays coolant out under high pressure when the engine is cranked with the spark plug pulled out.........hopefully head gasket.....hopefully not cracked head!

 

[vyseriesII]

I would say it is the inlet manifold gasket. Either that or a crack in the head/head gasket

 

[muso]

Yeah Head Gasket #6

Does anyone know if I have to actually completely remove the driver's side exhaust manifold to access the head bolts, it's un done and theres about a 1" gap between the manifold and head but there doesn't seem to be enough room to get the socket on square and the ex manifold won't move any further either and with head bolts especially you want the socket on perfectly square!