head gakset question(engine management light on)

[carltoncrazy]

righ as we all know,i`ve fucked the carlton

MC has given the idea that its gone between the water and bore part,i notice its started drinking water,but could i test this by taking all the water out and runing the engine?naughty i know but would it works,takes about a minute for the smoke to happen.
one other thing,is i dont wanna realy do the head gasket as,so could i alightly tighen the head bolts and try a stop it that way?
ive gotta make a descion by 2moz evenig,as im doing it on friday,either head gasket or tighting the bolts

[jim sri]

defo dont let her run dry on water!!!
it'll warp the head in no time, then you'll be in an even worse situation than b4, and u dont wany that looming over your head just afta u get back frm ur trip!?!?
if you dont wana change the gasket, you could try tightening the bolts, but be careful cos if you snap em-shit creek again.
id just change the gasket, days work at the most.

[Dicko]

dont bother tightening them as what usualy happens is a bit of gasket will break off cuasing the problem, so doing what you sugested wont help much.
you can go to a garage to get ur water tested to see if any exhaust gasses are getting into the bottle. they put special dye in ur water wjhich changes colour!!

[carltoncrazy]

right so we reckon its a head gasket change,
damn hoping it wernt.
dicko i reckon ur right to be honest,about it snapping,but i h8 doing head gaskets.understandble
il have to do this b4 i go away,like mc said,but i dont wanna forlk our loads,coz im moving to new zealand for 3 months with my bird,and her parents r paying,so i kinda wanna help out with money whilst im out there.

[carltoncrazy]

right got the gasket,understand about the timing.
need to know 2 things,
do i take the mainfold off,or down pipe?wanna do this the eays and quick way.
and do i have to take the inlet off?coz its injectors and i dont wanna be fucking round with em

[jim sri]

exhaust manifold from head, may also have to jack it up and undo the first flexi joint, u may get away with not having to. the injectors just pull out, and then unbolt the inlet manifold. then make sure all water/breather pipes disconnected etc, cambelt off. on a 20xe i think i had to remove the cam sprockets in order to undo the torx bolts holding the cam cover rear plate off of the head.
then undo head bolts, in the specified sequence for thta engine.

[carltoncrazy]

ok,i mihgt do it mayself,but my lass dad has just said he`l take it into work and,its gonna cost me 130 quid,
skimmed and pressure tested,is 130 good or not?