Talk:Head gasket

Rover K Series Engine

UK Readers - never ever buy a well-used secondhand Rover (eg Metro or 200) with a K Series engine. The notoriously dodgy composition and mounting of the head gasket means a) it WILL blow - usually once the car is past 70,000 miles and b) you will be left with £500+ repairs for a replacement (with a copper one) and invariably a new radiator too. The faults manifest in different ways: power reduction (leading to what feels like an alternator failure but without all the electrics going), uncontrolled heating and water loss and thermostat wobblies (due to lack of pressure sensing). Basically, if you got cappucino foam appearing in your water inlet, you got problems. And my sympathies. Plutonium27 (talk) 17:36, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

• start comment

I think the above (comment by user plutonim27) about a specific car is not really useful towards the discussion of what a head gasket is.

I also used this as my starting point to find out what a head gasket is and found the information only useful if you already knew what a head gasket was. This section is not clear and needs do define the difference between something called a valve cover. Also pictures describing the difference would be really useful describing the difference between the two.

After using this wiki as a starting point I now know there is a difference but i still do not know what the difference is or i would make the changes myself.

I will also post on main portion of wiki reference ambiguous do to confusing description between head gasket and gasket cover.

• end comment —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.21.81.23 (talk) 16:44, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Pictured replacement head gasket type

Of what type is the pictured replacement head gasket (pictured on the engine)? The cylinders seem to be sealed by rolled steel inserts, but the make up of the remainder in grey and red is unclear. 89.107.6.161 (talk) 07:59, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Cost of replacement

The article claims that 75% of the repair cost may be due to labor.

Is this vandalism or a serious statement?

An OEM HG will run between US $30-80, *maybe* up to the $200 range for some type of really exotic gasket for a high-boost application - maybe something like a 911 Turbo (and I'm really reaching with the $200 figure).

That statement means a $30 gasket will result in $120 of labor. That is completely bougus, and no reptuable mechanic would charge $150 for this repair. An HG replacement for a four-banger Honda is probably going to run $1200 at the low-end to $1800 at the high end.

The initial cost of the gasket has no bearing what-so-ever on the labor cost. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.65.91.78 (talk) 07:48, 6 December 2014 (UTC)