Just want to say this as everyone seems to be repeating the same thing, this was a head gasket on a BUDGET to get the car usable again. Not everyone has hundreds to change the timing belt, skim,l and the rest of it. This video is not intended as a how to, it’s just documenting what I’ve done to get the car running well again which it is. Please stop with the ‘I would have done this’ ‘should have done that’ comments as it’s boring, thankyou to all the people that appreciate the work and effort and can see the good in these videos 😬

Some people think you're a professional mechanic that should be doing "this" or "that" when in fact you're just a bloke and his shed, enjoying the learning experience. What's most ironic is that the majority of people here are just 'blokes with sheds' trying to act like experts. I thought the job was great, James. You're reaction when she started up was really great and something a lot of us shed blokes know. Keep it up!

I love these people where they actually spend time and effort on delivering such useful information that you really DIY some stuffs you never thought was possible. Subscribed sir.

Tom is lucky to have a friend like you, James. Nice work. And, nice music choice👍.

I know it's a few years but I just want to say how good it is to see a young lad giving it a go and not relying or being ripped off by unscrupulous mechanics of which there are very, very many...

Good work, you made a difficult job look easy. on a budget but I reckon you’ve done a more thorough job than many garages that would charge for a premium job. Sounds sweet as a nut, the tapping when cold is usually until oil circulates and warms, good little engine the 1598cc

well done James had me worried for a moment when I heard the knocking.. good job mate...

When I'm doing a head gasket on a budget, and I'm only like 1 or 2 thousandths of an inch off of being fully straight and flat, I use a $6 piece of plate glass roughly the same size as the head, use spray adhesive, and attach 1000-1200 grit wet sand paper to the glass, oil up the head with WD-40, and sand using equal pressure. And it produces a wonderful finish. I've done dozens of cars like this. Here in Nevada most shops charge $150 for a resurface of a cylinder head. So with the plate glass method, it costs about $15-$20 USD. And it works great. and you'll have enough supplies left over to do like 5 or 6 more cylinder heads if the need arises again.

First initial start up would’ve struggled cause the fuel pressure was low with draining the fuel rail, good job brother👍

The 1.8s are ridiculous tight aswel 😂😂 fair play sir

That dent mark on the head surface lines up with the dowel pin in the block ! If it wasn't you it was the previous guy who dropped the head onto the dowel pin before proper alignment. I would have recommended a resurface skim. Keep an eye on it until the next service. It may come back to bite you....😢😂

Great video helping a friend on a budget I spent half my life as a mechanic and some days were a struggle I strangeley miss it and watching these videos helps me enjoy a bit of of theat job satisfaction achievment wnjoyment i miss and can no longer do due to poor health. Keep on spannering and been honest like you are Thank You.

Great video, James and thanks for taking us through this job. It's always a pleasure to go the different things you do.

Hey James, a quick tip to make life a little easier, if you have a air compressor with a blower nozzle, use that to clean out the head stud threads

Would be cool to see you save a co part car that has mechanical issues more then body damage 👌🏻

I picked up a head gasket a while back when I spotted one on sale. Where I am it's very difficult to find someone who can work on my Astra without needing to keep it for days or weeks because they need to special order parts. It also costs a fortune which I simply don't have. The time has come that I need to put the gasket to use. With a little luck your help just might save me $1200! Thanks so much for your content.

Brilliant videos, no swearing, refreshing to watch

I have to do my mothers Mariva head gasket on a budget. Going in blind, and they live very remotely, so this video has been brilliant to give me a heads up on what tools to bring, and what to expect.

Good work mate! I noticed a lot of people mentioning about what they would have done, cleaned egr valve / channels, head skimming, oil and coolant change etc.. but like you said.. it is not your motor. You we're tasked by the owner to diagnose the problem, and fix it with minimal expense and time. And you done it, gets my thumbs up:-)

Definitely a headgasket on a budget

Was doing a head last week and to clean out the head bolts threads, bit of brake cleaner down the holes to loosen some of the dirt and then I taped some windscreen washer hose to head of the vacuum to get it all out. Worked a treat.

Great video to watch. All the people saying I would have done this or done that are mad If this was a normal back street garage they probably wouldn't of done half the stuff this lad has. And just say they have. All the best for the future

To know if it is a cylinder rings issue, you'd run a compression test. To know if it is a gasket issue, you'd do a Block test to check if there is exhaust gas mixed with the coolant. Which one can easily find the kit for it on eBay. I thought might help someone. 😁

With cylinder head bolts is always better to screw them in by hand first to make sure they aren't cross threading. If you go straight in with a driver and it cross threads then bye bye engine

There is a combustion gas tester that my garage uses, its very simple, save huge amounts of time diagnosing head gasket issues

Well done, good tips and easy to follow. You'll always gets the people that want to negate something, and it's easy to say just ignore them, but that's easier said than done. Thanks for sharing, it helps all of us DIYers in our repairs. thank you

An excellent video on the head replacement and what's involved. Great clear explanation and tips(cleaning the cylinder bolt holes before new bolts are put in, as well as possible problems one could encounter e.g getting the rusted exhaust bolts out) I like the Urwin bolt grab/grip socket set, the sealy battery operated socket tool and the angle gauge for torque setting. I own an Astra G at the opposite end of the world and should the need arise for a cylinder head gasket replacement, the knowledge gained from your video would be indispensable. Thanks for your time in making this video.

Tom is a lucky bloke to have you as a mate. It's a job well done considering the budget restraints.

Running sweetly now! Payback for putting in the elbow grease cleaning the mating faces. Could I offer a bit of advice? After you have tightened the bolts with the torque wrench to the first setting,put a spot of white paint on each bolthead at the 12 O'Clock position. This makes angle tightening a lot easier as if you get distracted or have to leave the job you know exactly where you are. You may have done this,hard to tell from the video. Motivated me to change the timing belt on my volvo D5 that I've been putting off,cheers from Newmarket!

Good job James 👍 and Tom is happy.

New tensioner would have a release on it making it easier to fit belt.

Great video James Most people watching your videos all live on a budget you shouldn’t go into fine detail and explain yourself keep up the good work and I think toolmaniac need to sponsor you🇬🇧🛠🔧🇬🇧

Great video James Tom is lucky he's got a good mate like you it's strange that a car doesn't have a temperature gauge🤔 like most cars

Well done mate we all need a friend like you 👍

I love watching these videos but the music choice is to relaxing. It's like watching an ASMR video so I fell asleep and had to go back and watch it again. I would have a go at doing jobs like this but I would loose track of what goes where lol

You did a good budget job, a lot of work mainly on your own. It’s a credit to you

Great job, enjoyed this little two-parter, great watching mate

I really enjoy these type of videos I prefer the longer ones you do like these

Just started watching your channel and loving it. Ignore any negative comments and carry on doing what you do. 👍

Those marks on head look like they came from the locating dowels ,might have hit them when lifting the head off or a previous repair?

Great couple of videos james. Must get.a.good sense of achievement. Well done

I tap all the holes, especially for the head bolts. I use a compressor to blow crap out of crevices. Surprised there wasn't an oil and filter change. Good thing is it was a successful job. Hope it's the last we see of it

Me and Darren probably spent an hour and a half 'getting it on'. ooeerr sir

Great video! Seems like your back to your old self. Thanks for sharing this job.

You are awesome cracking Before you started doing the head gasket it did sound really sick and rough too but after you did really really job 👍👍 I enjoy the videos you do on the cars you repair.

That dent you pointed out could be possibly done by you while lifting up the head. I was watching previous video and saw you resting that cylinder head on ex. manifold and so before complete removal... No hate, just be double careful with machined surfaces :)

Great job buddy head gaskets are a pain 👍👍👍👍F#%K THE HATERS BRO,big respect for helping a mate out

Great work mate. Keep em coming! Need to work up the bravery to crack on with mine.

That tapping noise you could here coming and going is the hydraulic lifts sticking but nothing really just needs running in and a oil change

My new obsession .. Savage Garage! .. I love watching your videos James!

Great video as always James, good job mate look foward to more in the future.

I had exactly the same problem with my 1999 astra 2.0 sri. I fitted a genuine GM timing belt and tensioner and struggled the same, luckily i thought to leave the pulley bolts very loose on the end of the bolts so they are nearly out and NOT the camshaft pulley bolts and i just managed to get the belt on myself. I thought next time is to cut the old timing belt in half down the length of it and slip that fully on and then fit the new belt halfway on then cut off the old half width timing belt then wiggle the new one fully on. Also to get the tensioner to tension fully its a good idea to turn the engine over with the wrench clockwise 2 full revolutions. I cannot see the timing belt slipping off when you first start the engine if you did not do this, but its best to be safe.

Head gasket done cheap definitely, enough said. Scratch on head from removal or previous work. Think, only saying as not there ,the rattle sounded like top end. No oil to cam until pressure built up. Job done👍 . Good work 🏁👏

I like your videos James,been watching since day 1. But I feel like there is to many so called mechanics on here ,getting there 2 cents in. These videos are very suited to people like me who has a 400 quid car and like to fix things on a budget and easily explained, like what you do.you have save me a fortune with your videos. But yet I dont understand why these so called mechanics would sit and watch your video when clearly they are such an expert in the field lol we live in a world where people like to get 1 up on each other. But keep up these great videos James.

Good job James, I enjoyed this 2 parter. Looking forward to seeing some more work on the mondeo too!

Great insight and presentation on how to do this job, we were learning with you on the way.!

Well done James, a great job, very well done!!!.

Just the hydraulic lifters pumping up that's also why it didn't fire straight away

Only just got round to watching this 2 parter, but this was a brilliant watch! I’ve literally just done a timing belt on one of these a week ago but didn’t have the motivation to film! Job well done mate 👍🏻

Great job James. Top work as always!

top work James well done mate 👍👍👍👍👍

Im enjoying your videos from here in the USA. Ive worked on the same situation of customer vehicles where they turn down recommended work which our service writers would note on the invoice incase of a come back or failure.

Did you change oil at all James!! If head went would contaminate oil! Liking ya videos still

Lovely Jubbly matey. Enjoyed that one.

Well said James and a job well done for a front yard head gasket change. There will lays be the armchair mechanics about to criticise and tell you what they would have done. If they are so good let them start their own channel and let's see how many subs they get and how they react to criticism. Well done I enjoyed the Vlogs keep them coming. Tom

Good job man

Hi mate that's very good work , good job you did , from Tony McCarthy from bedfordshire 👍

I like what you said towards the end. Its just a matter of taking things apart and putting them back together again. Everything in this and the last video points to my identical car having the same problem, in fact I was sent a link to the previous video as a 'here, check this guy out, think hes sorting out the same problem you have. I'm a kinda watch and learn and repeat type of tinkered and feel fully confident to tackle this even though I've not really worked on cars much. Changed brakes, filters, oil change, coil pack and plugs, stuff like that, but never tinkered with an engine. My car is a potential scrapper but still a fairly decent motor apart this head gasket issue. So I'm gonna get a little run around so I'm mobile and give this a go on the drive. Worst that can happen is I have to scrap it. But best case I'll sort the problem out with minimal cost and have lots of fun doing it. This video (and part one) is just what I needed to give me the confidence to get my hands mucky.

Great 2 part video! Enjoyed watching it👍🏽

Good job matey reminds me of my mate rebuilding my mondeo engine on the drive after Cambelt tensioner failed.that was a budget rebuild anyone else would have thrown car away lol

Very good job you are old school mechanic.

Few points that have probably already been said : Should of checked that head and block for flatness... only takes a couple thou of warp to take a multi layer head gasket engine out of spec - Really should have it skimmed as will probably find it will be a short lived repair - I hope it's not tho :) The marks you pointed out are from when you were lifting the head - The locating dowels are steel and head is alu. Always always at the very least blow out the head bolt holes of debris/fluids... best practice is to use a thread chaser to clean them out... Any oil down them will hydrolock and can easily crack a block - seriously. Also any debris/fluids will knock out torque and you will have uneven pressure clamping down on the gasket. All in all good job - Many wouldn't attempt it :)

I need my head gasket done so just looking as to what mechanic would do really interesting watch for somebody will little understanding 👍🏼👍🏼 thanks for great video

I'm just about to start doing the same job on the same car. So Awesomely timed vid! ...lol

Really good video. This is my problem, hope you can help? I've highlighted my response in (R) and mechanic(s) and KZfaqrs in (A) denoted by letters. (R) Make & Model = Astra H MK5 SRI 1.8 XP, starts fine drives fine, pulls lovely, none of the symptoms in your video. When warm and driving a plume of white smoke covers the entire rear screen, goes away and drives fine. Only when driving and not idile. I believe fuel is effected, but not entirely sure. Power is there, choked a little prior to replacement of Coil Pack and Plugs. (A) Could be a oil seals failing on your turbo. Take off your intercooler and you should expect about 10 ml of oil collected for a healthy system. If you're finding pints of oil then spend money to replace the turbo. (R) Mechanic mentioned possible faulty coil pack (now replaced). Replaced plugs as well. OD Reader picked up Camshaft issue (with first mechanic) as only error code, cleared before I had the chance to note down exactly what was read. No misfires or Coil Pack issue on ODReader. Did'nt go back to first mechanic, felt him a bit dodgy. (R) Today another mechanic replaced Coil Pack and Spark Plugs. Slight oil resisude around edges in cylinder 3 when plug taken out, others fine. Cleaned cylinder 3 before new plug insert. The coolant is not its usual pink colour, but light brown in colour. Oil level is fine, dipstick check. (A) HI there, from reading the above I would suggest the piston rings or the head gasket. Obviously its very hard to diagnose any issues with the car without seeing it, white smoke is typically from water getting into the engine via the head gasket, cracks in the cylinder or the turbo cooling system, if it was black or blue smoke I would suggest something more oil related. Is there an oily residue on the rear screen after the smoke? I would hold off on spending any more money on parts and conduct a compression test to the cylinders, this would narrow it down to the head gasket, rings or a crack somewhere. Also is the engine management light on, if you don't have an OBD reader I would suggest buying one cheap and seeing if there are any codes thrown up. Hopefully that helped. (R) I'm wondering if Camshaft Position Sensor faulty due to OD Reader picking up fault in that area? (R) Mechanic who fitted new coil pack and plugs advsied to test run which I did, but unfortunately another plume of white smoke, but not straight away. Seems to happen when engine is warm/hot. Not done intensive test run yet. White smoke occurs once or twice during a decent dual carriageway run. Once as maximum. Not constant. No smoke on engine start. No smoke when idle. Drvies really well. Smoke is a nightmare, embarrassing to other drivers. I purchased cheap OD Reader from eBay so will plug in and note error codes if any. Mechanic advised to replacement head gasket as second possible problem. Replacement Rocker Covers 4 months ago. Just wondering your thoughts?

Nice bit of 'Snap On' knucklehead ratchet 'B' Role...As there was soooo much oil in the number 1 cylinder I would have done the oil seals on the head as well...But as you say it's not your car etc...Looks like a good fix, James. Never and easy moment when you have to restart after some heavy maintenance. The knocking sound etc are more than likely due to all the oil draining out and being re 'lubed' once oil pressure is regained...remember when you depressurise the fuel system you are basically taking that fuel out of the equation. So on 'restart' the system has to re prime...a couple of cycles of the key would help that process....If you removed the injectors etc on you ST...then you would have that issue and then some...as diesels needs repriming and rebreeding to facilitate the starting process...Good Job!!!

I wish I had a friend like you

Knocking sounds are probably just from the hydaulic lifters that don't have enought oil because they drained empty while the head was out. When oil pressure builds up, the sound goes away. Nothing to worry about

When I started working on my cars in the 70s, most of this wasn't necessary as it was very rare to see a 16 year old car, they had generally rusted away after 7 years and weren't worth repairing.

brilliant. been waiting for the second part 👍👍✌

Very informative video tbh and taught me alot! Saved this to my playlist incase I ever need to replace my own head gasket etc. Valuable skills shared, good job sir! Subscribed. If you're local ish I'd even pay you to work on mine! Lol

I love your work my brother

I think the ticking would be a hydraulic lifter filling with oil... good job though... I enjoyed watching it... thanks.

You make it look so easy, well done job by the way

I did one of these - couldn't work out why the belt was so tight even with the tensioner all the way 'out'. In the end I took the inlet cam sprocket off, put it inside the belt, checked that the belt teeth were actually engaged on all the pulleys (as opposed to sitting on top of the teeth), then levered the pulley back on to the camshaft. Actually didn't need much force it was more a case of 3 hands needed. Once I decided to try that method it was on in 5 mins.

cracking job lad give us all a update soon. now time for some bodywork get the arches sorted on the astra and mondeo, really looking forward to it. word of advice though use nothing but a 2k lacquer, mipa do decent aerosol on on ebay.

Wish you were my friend, keep up the vids bro, love em.

Great job James. Like you say job done on a budget. Keep up the good work mate. Can’t wait for fiesta content. Ps I need one of those sealey Ratchets

Great video. In the process of pulling the head tomorrow morning on my 186000 miles Chevy sonic 1.8L. Very similar engine to yours but cams seems to be hydraulic influenced.

When I see a mk4/mk5 Fiesta, i subscribe. Nice work mate, of course you could do better, but better means money and time. In short of these, just make it better than it was with the budget. Edit: And look, I only saw 1 second of fiesta on the intro, and it was enough for me. Got to love the zetec.

Great video. Well done, and well filmed!!

Well done I enjoyed see your video

Timing belt is all ways my big worry 😂👀 I say “always” done 2 in the past never again I was only 17 at that time

If you keep one of those old head bolts and grind a flat on the theads, you can use it next time to clear out the bolt holes.

Great Job I should say Tom owes you a few beers.....

Tapping noise is sticky tappets or a slight oil line that's blocked.. when the oil is warm it's easier to travel throughout the lines hence when the cars warm no knocking... Those lines need blasting

loving the music 😅

Isn’t it funny where all these professionals seem to surface after one of these videos,,

Get it skimmed, if budget dictates not. Put the head back on with some wellseal. I would use that even when I get the head skimmed. Timing belt is a 30 min to 1 hour job on an Astra H 1.6 ecotec.

Great indeed, I enjoyed it