So not posted for ages but thought it might be interesting for folks to know at 160k miles what needed to be done to continue breathing life into my daily ED30. I have had a very small head gasket leak for years (rear, near cylinder 4) and it wasn't serious enough to do anything about. But recently the fluid top ups were getting on my t*ts and I decided to pull the plug on a head gasket fix. At the same time it was due a water pump and belt change... in for a penny as they say.
The head was duly sent off for checking and a skim if necessary (they did) and a decoke
. At the same time the cam chain which was deemed to be a bit slack (This was the second chain as last was changed at 94k) was up for replacement. So new tensioner and chain as well... in for two pennies now
They also cleaned the head and put it all back together with new bolts, a new PCV, sump check, new valve stem seals and oil refill. I am gonna see if the oil consumption is less now because of the valve stem seal change. You can hope cant you??
I was amazed at how much better the engine is and sounds fabulous. Much less tiketty noise and a much much smoother engine. The combination of head cleaning and new cam chain has really made me fall in love all over again. Not the cheapest of things to do on the car but the original leak is fixed and I get my cars mojo back again. Hopefully I wont need another cam chain until I move on to another car at some point.... Been looking to see if there are any ED35's but they are pretty rare.
Cheers
Rip