Hi all,

My 2.0sei has started to weep oil from the cambelt end of the motor. Not a lot but enough to leave a couple of spots on the driveway after a run. My local indie has had a look under the upper cambelt cover and says that it is the head gasket that is starting to fail. He says that this is fairly common on this type of engine. It has done 117k (miles).

Has anyone else had this happen, and/or has anyone replaced a head gasket on one of these 2.0's? It is a non-turbo.

Regards,
Kiwi

hi kiwi
i had to replace the head gasket on mine at 51k, its fairly simple job if you remove it with the exaust and inlet manifolds attached, it will make it a bulky item to remove though and after doing mine i would advise getting some help lifting the head out and then back in to avoid damaging the new gasket.
also make sure you change the cam belt tensioner and go over the valve gear while its off, you do not want to put it all back together and a month later have a valve seal die!!! Also it may be worth changing the water pump while your in there!

Hi Kiwi

I would be surprised if the head / gasket was the source of your leak, particularly as you don't mention any of the more usual head gasket symptoms. The three prime areas I would look at would be leaky cam cover gasket, leaky cam seal or leaky crank seal. (Don't forget, even if it's coming out at the crank, the rotation will distribute it around).
If you do the head, you're going to have to remove the belt covers anyway, so I'd bite the bullet, take them off, thoroughly degrease and clean the engine. Providing your daily drive is on fairly clean A roads and not dirt tracking, I'd leave the belt covers off, do the day's drive and then hopefully, with the engine cleaned, you'll see exactly where your oil is coming from.
If the oil has contaminated the cam belt, or you don't know its history, I'd change that while you were there, as well.

Mike.