406oc.co.uk

some days ago I noticed some oil in the expansion tank and I expected more trouble ahead but kept driving. As expected one day most of the oil in the engine disappeared and I decided to stop the car and fix it. As I could not see any water with the oil and also there were no air bubbles coming from the expansion tank I hope one of you can reassure me that it MUST be the head-gasket as I already start working on the car with that as the only possible source of cause.

Please let me know if I overlooked or are about to overlook something else.

My car is the same car as from this topic:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21295&p=215811#p215811

So it has some history before this but even with the above it has always run fine.

Any knowledge welcome or tips welcome as this is my first head-gasket to do on a 1999 406TD with conventional injector pump.

Thanks in advance

Probably is head gasket but it could be the oil cooler.

Sniff test is the only way to check properly but you could try bypassing the cooler and putting in fresh oil and coolant and see if it re-appears.

Probably is head gasket but it could be the oil cooler.

Sniff test is the only way to check properly but you could try bypassing the cooler and putting in fresh oil and coolant and see if it re-appears.

Thank you very much for your fast reply, I didn't think of that one!
I will let you know...

I would not take oil in water as 100% head gasket as I have have know your symptoms purely because a previous owner had used an old oil can to top up. I would recommend having it checked out though.

In accordance to the oil-cooler I can see the pipes on top of the oil-filter but they contain reasonable clean water while after unscrewing the water release valve on the bottom of the radiator it seems like a lot of oil came from it and it's still dripping!

Could the problem come from the unit behind the oil-filter or is this unlikely? Oil is dripping from the radiator but the hoses connected to it only contain water??

I am actually starting to doubt the oil-cooler more than the head-gasket though...

And as I have some knowledge missing:

Does anybody have a link to more information like a repair manual about the 1.9 TD diesel engines?

I have found all about HDI's but the repair manual I did find about the 406 1998/99 was unfortunately without the chapter of the diesel engine.

Thanks

Rolebama wrote:I would not take oil in water as 100% head gasket as I have have know your symptoms purely because a previous owner had used an old oil can to top up. I would recommend having it checked out though.

The last running day all the oil of the engine went with the water and got chance to leave through the expansion-vat lid leaving a very greasy area.
So in my case it is an engine fault somewhere...

gumby6371 wrote:Probably is head gasket but it could be the oil cooler.

Sniff test is the only way to check properly but you could try bypassing the cooler and putting in fresh oil and coolant and see if it re-appears.

I disconnected the hoses on top of the oil-cooler and by-passed the one between engine and radiator but no oil came from the oil-cooler and very soon I saw the (new) oil floating on top of the water in the expansion tank.

So unfortunately it's not the oil-cooler but fortunately I can take it now for sure that it must be the head-gasket? Or anyone another idea?

If anyone has a link with good information about the diesel engine in a 406TD '99 than that would be very helpful!

Well thank you all for the replies, I continue to change the head-gasket, I noticed there is a lot of oil coming from the water-pump, see picture: