Hi all.
Looks like I've blown the head gasket. Driving back home recently, It couldn't escape my notice that there was a very big white cloud belching from the exhaust. It was like a steam-engine going down the road.
Got home, found coolant res empty, took 4 ltrs water to top up. Couldn't find any leakage underneath. Now non-starter, was wondering if a sensor could have cut the engine preventing it starting?
Making a parts list now to change head gasket.
Going to do diags with SDD as soon as the battery is fully charged again.
Any help appreciated.

 

Can't help but deepest sympathies.
We've all been there.

 

I'd be interested to know where 4 ltrs of water could have gone when I topped it up, doesn't look like it's in the sump as no sign of water in the oil.
Seeing that the engine is a 2.0L, if the coolant had got into the cylinders, where did the rest of the water go?
The engine won't turn over now as I assume it's hydraulically locked if the cylinders are full of water. Seems I will need to remove injectors and suck the water out before I can rotate the crank to set the initial timing (50BTDC) before I lift the head off.
Does this all sound reasonable ?

 

BradsJag, odds are, you have diagnosed it properly. The white cloud coming out of the exhaust is a classic sign of a blown head gasket. If you would want to confirm, you would need to do a compression check of the cylinders. What you should see is one cylinder will have a very low compression number (probably in the 50 psi or less range), where the other cylinders are going to be up in the 150-185 psi range.

The other check that you can do is you roll the engine so both valves are closed on a cylinder. You can then remove the spark plug and then attach a hose to the plug hole. You can then fill the cylinder with say 80 psi air. The cylinder with a bad head gasket will blow bubbles into the overflow bottle.

If you do pull the head, setting the timing is just a matter of matching up marks on the timing chain and the gears on the various gears. As you are starting to pull the engine apart, I would start with pulling the plugs to give the water a method to escape. This will allow you a safe way to roll the engine. From there, you can watch the sprocket on the end of the camshaft for a "tick tack" (ie, an oval mark on the gear that will be about 5mm by 15mm in size). You should then see that the tick tack points to a portion of the chain that will be a different color (may be a dark chain with silver links or a silver chain with dark links). if it is not marked, then you are going to want to mark the chain yourself. You will want to do the same at the crankshaft end (this end tends to have a stamped dot on the gear/sprocket). After you do the head work, you line up these marks again and the timing for the engine is set.

 

Only way to learn I suppose, that and being unable to afford a garage repair !

 

Thanks for that, I've got a compression tester which I can use. The injectors will have to come out anyway, so I can comp test it at that time. I'm resigned to replacing the head gasket now. Just wish I didn't have to buy another new set of fuel lines again for the injectors, they are expensive.