gray wrote:

How hard is it to repair blown head gasket on a S reg MGF
I have had quotes from garages of £1000.
But what are the difficulties of doing it yourself.
Does the engine have to be dropped out

It isnt too bad a job. I changed my cambelt a couple of weeks ago, and
had a good look around it while doing it.
No need to drop the engine out, everything is just about reachable with
socket extenders or wobble heads etc.
I had to buy a couple of long reach sockets 8mm and 12mm iirc, but
otherwise, it was pretty straightforward.
If you DIY, make sure the head is flat, if it has overheated, then it
may be warped. Being as it is off, possibly best to get it skimmed
anyway, as well as lap in all the valves etc.

Check out all the MGF websites for info. The head gaskets have been
sorted now, so if done properly, it should last a long time (the feeling
was that it was a poor gasket design that caused the faults), make sure
you know whcih haed gasket to buy, I'm sure there are dealers around
still with the old stock, and you dont want one of those.

Alan.
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