Renault Scenic (1996 - 1998) - 1998 1.6 Head gasket - Again!

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Thu 1 Jan 2009 17:13
1998 1.6 Head gasket - Again! - Odyssey
My daughter's '98 megane scenic 1.6 (8v) has blown it's head gasket for the third time in 20 months. Is this a record?
I know they are prone to it, but it's getting a bit much.
The first time it was caused by water pump failure, (at about 115k miles) the cambelt was done at the same time, by our local garage who are excellent, used them for years and they are V reasonable. Head was skimmed and pressure tested. Don't know why it went again 7 months later (her partner had been driving it at the time and he's a bit of a jinx). The garage fixed it again (at reduced price). It runs fine in between times.

This time there was no big blow up, just just started chugging when hot, occasional bubble in the expansion tank, no big water loss, but evidence of escape round filler cap, runs OK when cold, presumably when pressure builds, water is forced past the gasket into the cyl.

I tried Kalimex K seal which I've used with great success in the past, but no joy.

As they can't afford to get it fixed, I was wondering about doing it myself. I've done gaskets before (a long time ago), lots of minis, couple of 6 pot BMWs, Ford essex V6, WV etc,
I was wondering if any special tools were needed, is it a complex job, how do those weird french ignition coil pack things work? etc. How hard is it to get the inlet manifold off, it looks really inaccessible. Are there timing marks on the camshft pulley?

Or should we just scrap it?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks

A
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