Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Zetec over heating again

Thanks for the advise. Now that I have ruled out the pump I am leaning toward the head gasket. I like the test with the plugs out and look for bubbles. I plan on doing a compression test but this may a quick way to get the answer. I had thought about collapsing hoses but forgot to check.

Rich S

I have started to take the head off to replace the gasket. Another pain. Last time I started it there was a smell of exhaust and gas in the coolant overflow tank. This was brand new fluid. After all this work the car better start and run well. Thanks for the help.

Rich S

You could smell gasoline/exhaust in the coolant tank. I hope the head gasket fixes your problem..Maybe there is a large blowout in the gasket?

After working on changing the head gasket for hours and days, can not work on it full time, it appears to have fixed the problem. Does not overheat, runs better, and the heat inside works.

By the way the new gasket was a multi layer metal gasket wihile the old one was a sturdy fiber gasket with metal rings around the chambers.

Thanks for the help.

Rich S

Good to hear you succeeded with the repair! Congratulations Could you see a break in the old gasket, I have seen it where the material near the cylinder ring erodes.

That is the amazing part. The gasket and the block and the head did not show any real evidence of blow-by or erosion. There was some pitting in one of the combustion chambers but nothing serious. It was hard to clean the head and the block. Would not come off with solvents. I used a dremel and a fine fiber sanding pad. Also the head did not semed to be warped. I ran a compression test before we pulled the head and got 150 on 3 cylinders and 175 one. Seemed a little low but all with in range of each other. So after all the work of pulling the head I was concerned that I had just wasted a bunch of time but has been running great for almost a week now.

Rich S