Damaged engine?

[Southwell]

Well i went round my parents for lunch yesterday and my mum just said a comment in passing. 'A light comes on when i go round corners, it's been on an off for a couple of weeks' Ok, so straight away im thinking oil light, which is confirmed after turning over the engine and hearing the tappets make a noise like ive never heard in her car.
The oil was very low, not even registering. So i go to fill it up and low and behold i find some nice mayonnaise on the oil cap and inside the rocker? box. I know this can happen on short journeys, but it seemed quite excessive to me and im thinking head gasket. As far as i know it hasn't overheated yet.
Anyone got any suggestions? The tappet noise did quieten down after the engine was to temp but it was still most definitely there, and i have not heard it on her car before so i am thinking that the engines been starved of oil and it's not a waiting game until detonation.

It's a 1.6 Astra 2001.

Cheers for any advise.

[burgie]

head gasket or cylinder head is cracked in my experience....

[markwilliamson2001]

Yeah sounds like a head gasket to me...
get it towed and sorted asap...
Bill wont be cheap either, used to cost about £5-600 on the rover 1.4/1.6/1.8 K series engine to sort out.

[Southwell]

The car isn't worth much, they wouldn't want to get it fixed, just buy a new one. Looks like their years of not getting a service done has caught up with them

[markwilliamson2001]

HELL YEAH!!

[timmy121]

if it's using water head gasket
but if not maybe ok
you can get white stuff in rocker cover from condension
if your not bothered about car to much run it for abit
but keep checking water and oil

[bodgit]

If as you say there was no oil in it ,the head may have warped too. My daughters clio went with no warning cost us £398 for new gasket head skim and cam belt

[Southwell]

This was a whitey brown mix. The car probably does a max of 5-10 miles a day. Not sure about water, i didn't check it.

[bodgit]

what colour is the exhaust smoke my daughters blew like an F1 car
If they are only doing 5-10 miles a day then they really need a smaller engined car as the 1.6 will barely have time to warm up if they do 2.5 miles to the shop ,stop then 2.5 back

[Northy]

Originally Posted by Southwell

It's a 1.6 Astra 2001.

Since when was the K series fitted to astras?

G

[Lee]

Sorry, i picked up on what someone else said.


It will be fine then if it's not a K series