Corsa-B.uk - Vauxhall, Opel and Holden Corsa B Owners Club

Hi all new to forum.

I need to do the head gasket on my L reg 5dr gls turbo diesel. Now...I've spoke to many a mechanic, most of whom say to not even bother as it will only go again a few miles down the road! However I only just bought this fricker from a dealer, no warranty, and it's a 100k minter generally. So I can NOT let it go to waste. But obviously I don't wanna spend the £400-£500 garages want to charge as this pretty much writes my car off lol. A mechanic who works next door to where i work said he'd do it for £150 labour but said including parts it still comes to £400!!! I can't believe this. He said I defo need genuine parts as you can't cut corners with diesels as they're higher compression etc so granted that's fair enough.

What I'd like advice on is could someone name every tiny little part I am going to need to renew for this job. Head gasket kits apparantly don't come with half the stuff needed so I'm told, ie gaskets for other stuff ytou need to take off, I'm not sure what parts that would entail as I've never done a job like this, but perhaps someone here would know this job inside out to be able to inform me of any hints n tips. Obviously I will need a manual which I've yet to get hold of.

inlet and exhaust manifold gaskets, may need your head skimmed too which can cost about 100 quid

As above, If you have a torque wrench and a haynes manual you can do it yourself, just make sure the faces are perfectly clean and flat.

grab yourself a 1.7 td from an astra most decent breakers will give at least a 14 day warantee and will most likely get the motor started for you if it is still in a car, that should get you about 82bhp straght away, and should be a fairly straight forward swap, I think the inlet manifolds need changing thats about it, loads of people use the n/a inlets when they are fitting an intercooler and stuff,

By all acounts the 1.7 can be tuned to over 100+bhp very easily, and is no heavier/bigger than the 1.5td because they share the same basic block casting and you can keep your stock g/box etc. just make sure you don't buy the gm 1.7 as they are low blow crap that you can't tune.

prawny12009 wrote:grab yourself a 1.7 td from an astra most decent breakers will give at least a 14 day warantee and will most likely get the motor started for you if it is still in a car, that should get you about 82bhp straght away, and should be a fairly straight forward swap, I think the inlet manifolds need changing thats about it, loads of people use the n/a inlets when they are fitting an intercooler and stuff,

By all acounts the 1.7 can be tuned to over 100+bhp very easily, and is no heavier/bigger than the 1.5td because they share the same basic block casting and you can keep your stock g/box etc. just make sure you don't buy the gm 1.7 as they are low blow crap that you can't tune.

Lol ta for that but i just wanna fix it to sell it on