Ooft that's not good Mattie.sorry to hear that.

how did they diagnose it? did they do a proper sniff test with the die? you can get these kts yourself from amazon for less than £25. Think they call them block testers, by dr headgasket.

i thought id got HGF but it turned out to be the oil cooler gasket was letting coolant contaminate the oil. Still havent gotten around to sorting it yet as cant seem to find the gaskets. will probably end up getting one of those make you own gasket kits.

Thanks mate, at least I've give it a go! Would have been nice for the first garage to have told me that before I spent hundreds on it but there we go.
Quoted £1800 to fix (head gaskets, cambelt etc) so I'm in 2 minds now. I'd feel like I'll let the previous owners down if I break it but on the flip side I could spend thousands and it potentially fails the next MOT. Balls :(

I left it with him but he said there was a huge amount of pressure in the coolant system and mayo in the engine, you could see it on the dipstick and where you put the oil in. Very think and gungy. He used to run the MGR garage in Northampton for 25 years so knows the cars I'd like for think.

That Kayleigh and Dave will do the same job for less than half what he's asking.

Ouch - that seems a lot for that job tbh.

It makes sense to do the belts while the head is off, but it seems that he is billing for the two jobs as separate quotes.

While no engine is immune it is typically unusual for the KV6 to go that way, you've had a really bad run of luck if that is the case!

Tell me about it! I've enquired with Mg mobile but there's a month waiting list, same with lates

Get another engine .... ?

Damn Matt, You've not had a good start to 180 ownership at all !

Has an issue with the oil cooler been ruled out completely ?

If it has been ruled out then I'd have to agree with Dan, you'd be better off sourcing a good used engine and swapping it out. There's a lad called Sam Tomkins on the MG ZS Owners Club on Facebook. He's quite well known within the MG community and he may be able to help you with an engine and possibly fitting of it, definitely worth getting in touch with him.

Will be a damn sight cheaper then £1800 too.

Would be a real shame to break her up but it's your car and your decision to make regardless of what the previous owners may think.

Well she's booked in with MG Mobile mechanics at the end of April so will go from there. Won't be able to go POL in her but at least it's getting a proper diagnosis. Gives me a month to get the radio and bodywork sorted :) Seems to point more towards an oil cooler fault than HGF so fingers crossed. If that is the case then I will be quite annoyed with the chap at the second garage assuming it's HGF.