FML! vr6 water in oil, head gasket?

[tweed]

I noticed yesterday a little bit of milking on the oil filler cap. This was at the gf, drove home this morning, checked as soon as I got to mine, 2 miles if that and there was more milking!
Checked the engine rebuild receipt and there is NO heahgasket on it 
 Now this is something I want to do myself to save on money, I need help from you guys to give me as much info and tips as possible. I will be doing headgasket, chains and tensioners.
Where is best place to buy these parts?
Will I need any special tools? (I have a lot)
Anything to look at when it's apart? etc.

Cheers guys.

[JC]

before you spank all ya money on a H/gasket you got a lot of other things to consider

1, do you do a lot of short stop start journeys ?

2, are you losing oil n water ?

3, compression test on ya cylinders

4, whats ya oil cooler like,

 

[Gash]

yea id check those things frist too
i thought i had a HG fail because i had oil in my coolant.
compression test/blocker test were fine. no other symptoms too
my oilcooler looked like crap when i changed it, still a little bit of oil in the expansion tank, but its whats left from in the pipes as its tiny tiny bits, compared to before.

as for parts if you need themm....

torque wrench for the head bolts thats the only specialist tool i know of that you need.
HG can be bought from gsf for about £25

[Wayne]

Might be worth giving it a long run 1st.

Hg is not an easy job on a VR

[tweed]

Nice one guys!!! I look at it tomo, the missus ain't letting me play with cars today 

I do do short journeys, but I let it warm up and then take a long drive home so the oil gets to 90+. First thing I do in my cars is put the oil temp on.
I did do a long journey a day before I noticed the milking. Well lets just say I drove like I stole it.  :embarassed:
It does drink oil! but I've had a 1.6 16v drink just as much. Water seems to be ok but that's something I haven't been watching.

Should check the spark plugs too.

[javalin]

should get a compression test first, before changing HG.  No point if compression is good.

[Wayne]

should get a compression test first, before changing HG.  No point if compression is good.

Sound advice

[tweed]

should get a compression test first, before changing HG.  No point if compression is good.

Sound advice

cool cheers guys. Great help.

[Bellend]

Engine won't have been rebuilt without a new headgasket mate. 

[tweed]

Engine won't have been rebuilt without a new headgasket mate. 

How do you know?
On the receipt it has everything listed even a cam cover gasket but no head gasket. Also I would have replaced the chains while the engine was apart, but the lad who had it at the time of rebuild told them to use the old ones and not replace them. Could be the same for headgasket. I just don't know. I know it sounds very stupid that it might not have been changed for a new one. how ever there is water in with oil and there isn't a new HG on the receipt.