156 Head Gasket

[jt2112]

Hi All,

Just thought I'd share some of my recent experiences with my 2004 156 JTS (manual).

I bought my Alfa second hand back in March 2011 from a family in Brighton, for which the 156 was a daily driver for the mother of the family. It had done 86,000 km in seven years, had full service history from Lance Dixon and was clean throughout. To boot, it was an Italian family, (massive generalisation, but I thought that Italians of all people should know how to look after an Alfa) and during the process of purchasing, I'd found out that had gone to school with the lady's son. I had done all my reading on this forum and had convinced myself that this was the car I wanted. I was aware of all the idiosyncrasies such as oil consumption, thermostats, cam belt etc. and I bought the car for $14,200.

In the first couple of months that I had it, I have to say, it was absolutely amazing. I couldn't believe that this was actually my car. Every time after parking her, I couldn't help but take another glance as I walked away.

I kept up with regular reading of various topics on this forum and one day happened upon one that said you should take any Alfa (before you buy it) for a pre-purchase inspection. So, three months after I bought it, I took her down to The Italian Job not knowing what to expect. Funnily enough though, there were no major issues. Sam said I'd dodged a bullet, and this was one of the best examples of a second hand 156 going around. Needless to say, I was quite pleased with myself.

I told Sam of a couple things I'd noticed, but they could be resolved. These included:
-   Sometimes when closing the front passenger door, something goes wrong with the temperature gauge, causing it to drop dramatically to -45 degrees celsius. When this happens, the A/C is locked on hot air, no matter what temp you set it to. (For this, I had the sensor, which goes in under the side mirror, replaced).
-   Water temp gauge was always zero. (For this, I had the thermostat and coolant replaced).
-   Sam noted that with only one cam belt change done at 74,000 km, but more than three years ago, it was time for this to be replaced too, which I also did.
-   Sam noted that when they started the engine in the morning, it was a bit slow to crank, but still started first go. Their diagnosis was weak battery, probably due to it being in the middle of winter. I said I'd monitor it for the time being.

So the next few months were very smooth sailing. I looked after her well, had a 90,000 km service, always checked the oil whenever I filled up and always kept an eye out for any warning signs of the battery dying. I even took the car to Marshall Batteries to get it checked out. The guy there said that the battery was probably a bit small for the 156, but it still had life in it. No problems, I thought.

Then in December, my world came crashing down. The car overheated, warning message came up, I pulled over immediately. Checked under the bonnet and the coolant was dry. Luckily I was near a petrol station so I went to get some emergency coolant. I say 'emergency' because you can never get the right coolant you need. Anyway, that seemed to cool it down and drove perfectly back home.

The next day I called up The Italian Job for some advice. 'Bring it down, we'll flush it out and put new coolant for you'. Easy. Couple of days later, (I wasn't driving it in the meantime) when I was ready to take it to the workshop, I started it and it just seemed like a different car. It was rough as and something just didn't seem right about it. The coolant had also become a disgusting brown colour (pink plus green), so I thought, just to be safe, get it towed to my old local mechanic, which was closer than The Italian Job to change the coolant.

They changed the coolant and did a compression test. Then came the bad news. Blown head gasket; not just the top but the middle and bottom end as well. The worst of any car this mechanic had seen apparently. I can't remember the details, but there was some mention of gas or exhaust (or something like that) readings being 10 times above normal. Their advice was to get rid of the car. Not worth the money they said.

I called up a few Alfa specialists who said that the slow crank first thing in the morning was probably water leaking into the engine, and when you start it, the slow crank is due to the water sitting at the bottom, which is incompressible. Over time, this deforms the internals, which brings me to the situation I'm in now. So, what was originally diagnosed as a weak battery six months earlier, was a cracked head all along, all this time getting worse and worse until the day of the overheat.

The cheapest way to fix it now is to get a whole new motor. So I have one lined up, which has done 71,000 km, and a new clutch while they're in there. The quote is for $6,000+.

That's my Alfa story.

[colcol]

Sorry to hear your story, few things to learn from this, when you check your oil level every week, also check the coolant level, the 156 has a great cooling system if looked after properly, however a weak point is the coolant transfer 'pipe' on the front of the engine is prone to cracking, and leaking out fluid, a keen nose will smell the coolant leak, and i am not making this up, it is a smell, not unpleasant, but something you will pickup, and the cooling system will start to go astray, such as running too hot, and the temperature gauge not registering correctly, and with any twin spark or JTS, keep an eye on the temperature gauge, as if its running cold, replace the thermostat pronto, now the reason it blew a head gasket was due to it overheating, the minute you 'cook' an engine the block warps, the head warps, and if bad enough, the alloy material will go soft, making it a throwaway job, i reckon that whenever you have the cam belt done, and they have to remove the cam covers to fit the cam locks, i would have the head bolts retorqued, because the bolts stretch the head gasket flattens out and to a certain extent the alloy 'settles', this means the clamping of the cylinder head to the block is not as great as it could be and then you get coolant leaks into the block and then you will notice your coolant level drops, and if you get on to it early you can get away with a replace the head gasket job, also when you check the oil level every week, you will notice the oil turning a milky color, this is water leaking through the head gasket into the oil, seeing you have overheated the engine, the best thing would be a good secondhand engine with a new water pump and cambelt job done, sorry to hear about your dillema, let us know how it all pans out, Colin.

[bix]

I feel your pain jt2112.
The question I have is why do you think the temp gauge was faulty in the first place? I could be wrong, but I think it's unusual that the most important gauge in the whole car was not working (at least not in a modern car - I would expect it in a 105 series  ). Had the family been running it low on water for sometime which might have sealed the engine's fate? Was there visible coolant in the bottle when you bought it or only plain water?

[colcol]

Sometimes a erratic or non working temperature gauge can be caused by running low on water, if there is no actual water running over it, then it won't work, this is why check your coolant every week along with your oil, the most important thing is that it has water, and the correct coolant helps as well, but not absolutely essential, if you run low, just top it up with tap water, worry about coolant when you get home, mechanics can also put strips in the coolant tank to check for exhaust gas in the coolant, a quick way of checking for a blown head gasket before the do a compression test, in the 156 series the twin spark and JTS engines are easy to do a compression test, in a V-6, not so easy, thats why the strips come in handy, Colin.

[jt2112]

Good question Bix. I was told by Sam (from The Italian Job), and also read in countless other threads, that it was because the thermostat was stuck in the 'open' position and this is a common problem (to all cars, not just our Alfas). Once a new thermostat was installed though, the temperature gauge worked perfectly. When they did this job, they replaced the coolant with the pink Paraflu stuff, and that's what I've been running it on until the day it overheated.

I don't know exactly how the previous family treated the 156, but during the pre-inspection test, Sam said there was a slight droning sound, which meant it may have run low on oil at one stage. No word on running low on water though.

Having gone through this (wonderful) learning experience, I believe that the cracked head may have been an existing issue when I bought it. It must have been very minor at that stage because nothing was picked up in the pre-inspection, when the thermostat was installed, nor at the 90 k service (though I don't think they ever open up the motor in any of those instances). The only sign was the slow crank the first time you start it in the morning, which was thought to be a flat battery. I only drive about 6,000 to 8,000 km a year, so I don't think that it was all my own doing.

Colin, I suppose now I know - check the coolant when I check the oil.

[colcol]

A head will crack when its been overheated or when its been overheated, warped and someone tries to straighten it without heating it up first, beleive me, i purchased a second hand head from a wrecker, and it leaked oil, and i took it to an engine specialist, and they counted 28 cracks in it due to not being straightened properly, the JTS and twin sparks have a problem with their thermostats failing, they usually open too early, my JTS was like this when i first got it, and when i put a new Genuine thermostat, it would heat up within 3 kilometres, a stuck open stat won't cause the engine to overheat, just get a low reading on your temp gauge, Colin.

[bix]

Good question Bix. I was told by Sam (from The Italian Job), and also read in countless other threads, that it was because the thermostat was stuck in the 'open' position and this is a common problem (to all cars, not just our Alfas). Once a new thermostat was installed though, the temperature gauge worked perfectly. When they did this job, they replaced the coolant with the pink Paraflu stuff, and that's what I've been running it on until the day it overheated.

Gotcha jt2112. That's unlike my experience in my TwinSpark where the only side effect from the stuck thermostat was on cold freeway journeys where it would sit on half normal temp. I would still expect the gauge to show normal temp in city driving though...

Anyways, focusing on the positives... any 105 series owner will tell you it's much more important to have a good body and interior than a good engine. Once you get that new engine fitted, I would expect you to have that same amazing feeling back again, taking glances back at "la macchina". Ahh the joy and pain of Alfa Romeo.

[colcol]

In a previous life i worked at an engine reconditioners, and about 80% of all engine failures was due to the car running out of oil or water, after you read this post, go and check your car now, Colin.