Nova died on the way home....

[Jackroadkill]

My Nova died on the way home (after a blazing row with my stepdad) and now I'm stuffed for a daily and I'm absolutely flat broke. As it's dark, I don't know exactly what the problem is, but I'm suspecting the head gasket, as there's no compression and a huge cloud of steam poured out of the exhaust. Oh, and there was also a really, really unpleasant tingtingtingting noise as well, just to add insult to injury. So, it may be the HG, but it may also be catastrophic block failure as well.

It's a long shot, but if anyone has a 1.2 carb head or short engine lying around (one that definitely works, that is!), can you let me know? I'll post a wanted thread as well, but as I'm really desperate I thought I'd chance my arm in here and hope the mods look kindly on my plight....

Bugger.

[Yorkie]

Awww no, gutted sorry to hear it mate. Hope you find an engine, im sure there are a few around.

[Dave.]

Graeme on here is breaking a 1.2 Nova, jusy had a new head gasket :thumb:

[bmxalex]

sounds like it has overheated very bad and killed it they tighten up when they get very hot and no water in them

[Jackroadkill]

sounds like it has overheated very bad and killed it they tighten up when they get very hot and no water in them

The odd thing about it all was that it didn't overheat and it still has some water in it when I left it. Which may be a good thing or a bad thing, I suppose...

[Danny s-p]

it blown the HG between to chambers the ting ting ting sound is the compression getting pushed between bot chambers normlly go on 2 & 3 happened to biker boys c14se and my c12nz & c14se normally happens qwite often if you give them death from first start up when cold hope this help not all is lost throe new HG on it it all i did with mine

[Danny s-p]

posted twice

[Nova_Sean]

^ Love your sig

[Asa-James]

Get the head ripped off and see what's what, if needs be I have a new 1.2 headgasket here (cover the postage it's yours) when you geth the head off, just make sure everything turns over nice and free :)

[Jackroadkill]

it blown the HG between to chambers the ting ting ting sound is the compression getting pushed between bot chambers normlly go on 2 & 3 happened to biker boys c14se and my c12nz & c14se normally happens qwite often if you give them death from first start up when cold hope this help not all is lost throe new HG on it it all i did with mine

Thanks Danny - I must admit that it was the tinging noise that worried me most.


Get the head ripped off and see what's what, if needs be I have a new 1.2 headgasket here (cover the postage it's yours) when you geth the head off, just make sure everything turns over nice and free :)

Cheers Asa - will be recovering the car later so will get her opened up and see what the score is. If it is just an HG I'll let you know ASAP and send you some money.

CHeers,

JR

[burgo]

i got a head gasket for £6 from a local autofactors, so hardly an expensive fix

[Danny s-p]

^ Love your sig made me lol so i had to use it

[Jackroadkill]

i got a head gasket for £6 from a local autofactors, so hardly an expensive fix
Well, thankfully it looks as if that's all I need to buy. The HG had gone between 3 and 4 but there was no overheating and everything's still straight. I'll get a new one tomorrow, and a new timing belt as well, because the existing one was a shade loose (not enough to jump a tooth, but while it's off the car I may as well change it, I suppose).

Thanks very much to everyone who offered advice , help etc.

[swedge]

Well, thankfully it looks as if that's all I need to buy. The HG had gone between 3 and 4 but there was no overheating and everything's still straight. I'll get a new one tomorrow, and a new timing belt as well, because the existing one was a shade loose (not enough to jump a tooth, but while it's off the car I may as well change it, I suppose).

Thanks very much to everyone who offered advice , help etc.

youll need headbolts too, better just getting a full gasket set as youll need them all

[Danny s-p]

make sure you clean the sut off the head and block with some very fine wet dry

[Jackroadkill]

Okay, update.... Have changed the HG, which was proper knackered and fired her up again. She's running well etc - the only thing I've noticed is that she's steaming through the exhaust. I let her warm up and took her for a few miles' drive and it's decreased quite a lot in amount.

So here's the question - is this just water that flooded into the exhaust when the old HG went and has soaked into the wadding in the silencers heating up and leaving the system, or is there something fundamentally buggered inside the engine?

She doesn't seem to be losing coolant as the coolant in the header tank has stayed at the cold line through a whole heat cycle.

What do you reckon?

[mk1nova_rich]

Let her do a few more miles, keep an eye on coolant level and oil, make sure they are staying separate and I reckon it will clear up and be fine

[Jackroadkill]

Let her do a few more miles, keep an eye on coolant level and oil, make sure they are staying separate and I reckon it will clear up and be fine

Man I'm glad you said that! That's the plan - we'll have a crack at the work run tomorrow and see how she goes.

[Jackroadkill]

Let her do a few more miles, keep an eye on coolant level and oil, make sure they are staying separate and I reckon it will clear up and be fine

Man I'm glad you said that! That's the plan - we'll have a crack at the work run tomorrow and see how she goes.

[CoolTiger]

the steam will be just water in the exhaust it will burn off after a while

[Danny s-p]

come on then throe pic up of how bad the HG was

[Jackroadkill]

the steam will be just water in the exhaust it will burn off after a while

Yes, I think you're right. By the time I'd got to work this morning there was no steam happening at all, thankfully.

Danny, I'll get a pic of the HG when I get home. It's quite suprising - the metal rings are broken.