Porous (cracked for Stu) Head?

Hi

Not been online for a while and have had the xe off the road since Feb 08 as have not had time or interest in fixing it. it was missfiring and i replaced some ignition components and realised there was water coming out of the 1st and 2nd cylinders into where the plugs sit. the car ran fine for the first 10 minutes but then would missfire. so i assumed it was the porous (cracked) head problem as there is oil in the water and water in the oil.

Anyway took the head off today and the bores were full of oily water which is the same as what is in the header tank. i had a look through a few threads and most people only seem to get oil in the water?? due to the oil galleries having a higher pressure.

anyway am going to have a go at the head fix myself as dont want to splash out any cash and it looks simple enough as per this guide http://www.orsas.com/CarStuff/cav/info.php

But i was just wondering is am i wasting my time as it doesnt seem that most cases have such an extreme mix of oil and water as mine has exactly the same mixture in the header tank as it does in the bores!!!!

Any advice would be much appreciated as i really hope i havent shagged the block in some way.

Thanks

Neil

Unless the head is massively cracked or warped, the 'porous' problem is usually oil in water/header tank...

Sounds like gasket failure...

I'm with will here, sounds like gasket failure. Get the head pressue tested though whilst its off.

well had the head off and did the porous head mod and all went quite well. intersting lathe was made out of a drill an allen key along with some fairy liquid and some sand paper to take a bit off of the ally pipe form b&q! head is back on and it seems ok just have to see how it holds up