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MG MGF Technical - warnings hgfs

if you notice your water going down get it checked out or slight mayo mine went. did not have the steam but loosing water kept topping up the oil 2 get it checked before you warp the head, could cost more damage pressure test sniffer test.
you all know that anyway. my first hgf with this car 52 on the clock not nice and a hefty bill 2
Darren Jeffery

Hi, Darren ...mines been done recently and it is a real pain.As you said in your other thread nice cars crap engines..
I read somewhere recently that mg rover knew what caused the hgf on these cars but put ther head in the sand ...to much cost in recalls i suppose.
Mine to has the L R gasket we,ll see how long it lasts !!!
Mel.
m e johnson

The K itself isn't a crap engine but the budget application of it to the F was. If MGR had produced 'the solution' they would have been sued out of existence for having previously not done it properly while being able to do so. Catch 22.
C.R.B. Simeon

i understand, its a shame really nice car but the engine does not marry up with it, thanks for your thoughts guys. yep mines having the land rover gaskets whats the diffrence between the 2 oem ?? i love my car cant complain. i suppose had it since 2004. (((one pump gone timing belt 2005))) now hgf 2007. 2001 52 on the clock i was speaking to someone he said you caught it just in time caught it just in time phew.....
Darren Jeffery

So what caused the head gasket to go then? It is a very common and poorly informed conclusion that the head gasket is the cause of all the problems - it is not. Most of the time it is a symptom of some other problem, and not the problem in itself. Between us my family has 4 K series engined cars (96 MGF VVC, 97 216 SLi, now VVC'd, VVC midget and Metro GTi), with a total of close to 30 years running spread over the 4 of them in our ownership, in that time we have had what mot would call HGF around 10 times, all but one the head gasket was not the problem.

The problems generally arise from air locks in the cooling system, which occur when the cooling system is not bled properly when refilled. Alternatively we have had thermostats go on us about 4 times. Often these problems, left unchecked, will result in HGF. As the K series has a reputation for HGF, the HG is assumed to be at fault, replaced and shortly after the problem rears it's ugly head again and the new gasket goes, and the HGF myth recirculates once again.

I am the first to admit the HG design is not the best on the original K series, however it is not as dreadful as everyone believes. Fitting the Land Rover PRT thermostat is a useful mod if you want to avoid future overheating problems, and save yourself some money.

It is also not a huge job to change the HG on an F, it is well within the abilities of most home mechanics, the only specialist tool really needed is an E12 socket for the engine bolts.

Finally, the K series is an award winning and advanced engine design, even today. It is the best engine I've had thepleasure of driving - I much prefer driving a VVC powered car than pretty much anything else

Andy
Andy

Hi ,Andy.
I don,t pretend to know the ins and outs of the k series (or any engine) but ive owned 10 cars/vans over the years ,gone over service times etc etc..Without hg failure.
I,ve only had one moth balled ,garaged ,over serviced ,mgf with now 2 head gasket faiures dispite mg rover or specialist full service history.
I love the car but it is a fault with them (IMHO)
Look on ebay and 90% of mg,s for sale boast a new head gasket.
My old van and my wifes car when sold boasted a lot of new "bits" but not the head gasket.
Mel

m e johnson

Hi Mel

Firstly, the reason people boast about new HG's when selling F's is as I mentioned before, they have a reputation for HGF (in my opinion, ill-deserved) so a new head gasket is a selling point, rightly or wrongly.

How far apart were the 2 failures? As I said before, it is almost certainly not the HG at fault, but something else entirely. It is exactly the same as the myth that twin SU's are difficult to tune - they aren't, but people find the car isn't running right, assume it must be the SU's as that's what they've heard, try to tune them and can't solve the problem as the problem is elsewhere, think "golly gosh they ARE hard to tune" and the myth perpetuates itself.

My Midget is far from pampered, it is a modified VVC with around 190bhp and is used predominantly in competition, especially autotests which are very hard on any cooling system. Hence the car regularly gets hot (not over heated, just hot), the only times it has overheated have been from air locks and the thermostat (the latter now solved by fitting a PRT thermostat ex Land Rover)

It should also be said the K series actually has far less occurence of HGF (supposed or real) than a lot of other engines (including Porsche engines), it is partly due to the high produciton numbers of the K that it's problems are so frequently reported. It is the same with any model of car - some examples have of 250k+ miles of trouble free motoring, others have continuous problems.

Ady
Andy

is it really worth buying an MGF? I have put down a deposit on one to pick up tomorrow but must admit am having second thoughts after reading about all these HGF etc. I have owned five mgbs in the past and thought that i would like to try an F.
Dave Banks

Had our *F* eleven years - not high mileage but certainly some hard mileage.

At ten years as part of it's major service we had the top off, everything was checked and as a precaution the latest gasket fitted.

Apart from that the only major (more spectacular than major) problem was when a hose blew!
Ted Newman

My Headgasket went because of the thermo. Went to my parents had a smell off rottern eggs from the back new i should have added some bacon with that LOL.
sorry. put the cold air and the fan cut in put the car back in the bay. went out in the eve heater on cold checked the coolant had gone added fresh water to it to get me home checked dipstick mayo.....

no overheating, no steam ,no high temp guage. just the thermo knackerd still love her and she looks great in the summer

Many thanks Darren
Darren Jeffery

Dave Banks, it's a hard call. I did exactly what you are doing about 15 months ago. After 12+ years in a B, I changed to a very early F (the 151st car made). Mine has done 50,000 miles in 11 years and I am the 3rd owner. It had a precautionary gasket change about 4 years ago, but so far has never had a failure - touch wood! I love driving it - it's quick enough, handles brilliantly (as long as the tyres are good quality) and is economical and comfortable. Sure, it lets in some rain, but I live with that. However, you do think about HGF most all the time.....

Mike Howlett

Hi Darren,
So in fact this isn't really HGF, the head gasket has only gone because the thermostat packed a sad, as I said in my earlier post. We've had this happen a few times but it has always been caught in time to prevent the car from over heating and blowing a gasket. Rememeber, in any car overheating is a problem and often will cause damage, in the case of the K series it is often the HG that goes next (as in a LOT of other engines).
Andy
Andy

Hi, Andy..mine went 56,000 (previuos owner)and 4 years later at 69,000.
so a mere 13,000 between failures.
It had the uprated hg from MS on by the previous owner .
Don,t know why it went (oil and water mix hgf).
It was fixed first time by a mg specialist in Warrington according to the service history.
I know guys who have never had hgf on older high mileage f,s .
I also know guys who have had hg failures on 2 year old tf,s .
I too thought that bad servicing ,rad leaks etc etc..was to blame untill mine popped for the second time.
It is good to hear of others who have had no problems after years of ownership.
Still on the fence on this one!!
Cheers
Mel.
m e johnson

I truly believe the MGF/TF is the HGF world champion. No other car present as many HGF as these MG cars.
Andrew Bowles

And the challenge gentlemen, as ever, is not to rise to baiting by the pig-ignorant-and-proud-of-it.
Charles

Does anyone know of any instances of subsequent HGF after fitting the Land Rover gasket and oil rail ?
Paul Hollingworth 1

Paul, I think that there have been so few of these that the numbers are statistically irrelevant. Like concord going from the safest plane to the most unsafe plane with one accident.

Mine hasn't popped, but neither had the one I pulled out to replace it with
Will Munns

<Does anyone know of any instances of subsequent HGF after fitting the Land Rover gasket and oil rail ? >
Big YES. My 2004 TF 160. HG blew two month after preventive fitting of the Land Rover gasket and oil rail. No way with the K!
Andrew Bowles

This thread was discussed between 10/02/2007 and 17/02/2007

MG MGF Technical index

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