I have an 02 plate astra and have seen the dreaded mayo on the underside of the filler cap. I have flushed the engine and changed oil and filters but it has re appeared. However i have no loss of power, no problems starting and there is no white smoke while running. I use the car for a 90 mile daily commute.
hope someone can shed some light on it
Btw 02 astra club, 1.6 8v
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I have flushed the engine and changed oil and filters....
What oil are you using? Not so much the brand, but the viscosity and whether it's a mineral, semi or fully synth oil.
Also, what is the temperature gauge reading?
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its the 1.6 8 valve they all do it
its the law
and a dammed good solid engine apart from the egr valve
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i take it that this is the engine with the plastic rocker cover, if so, its normal, not nice, but normal !!!!!
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yer, plastic rocker cover.
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15w/40 - synthetic
and yer, am losing coolant.
thanks for your quick replies
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">and yer, am losing coolant.<"
Fix that first, then see if the mayo problem goes away.
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To check to see if it is the head gasket, ask an MOT station to "sniff" the coolant header tank with their emissions probe. If any HCs are detected, then you need to get the head gasket done.
If no HCs are detected, you might want to check to see what temperature your engine is actually running at* - again, if you don't have the means to measure this, the MOT station will be able to touch their oil temperature probe against the top hose to get an idea if the thermostat is playing nicely. (If the thermostat is opening at too cold a temperature, you will get condensation forming an emulsion in the colder areas of the engine).
* You might find that the dashboard gimmick that is the temperature gauge happens to be accurate - then again, you might not.
If it is the head gasket, I would struggle to imagine an easier OHC engine to do. At the same time, you would be best to fit a new cambelt, water pump, and thermostat. Pedantically, it is best to fit new head bolts, but, I've managed to do a fair number of these without bothering.
One point which catches most people who do a cylinder head on one of these engines for the first time is the need to compress the hydraulic tappets to get all the oil out. If you forget this, the tappets will hold the valves open, and you won't be able to start the engine again for a week or so!
Number_Cruncher
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