Suzuki Club UK

Well it took about 2 weeks to find something wrong with my new SJ..I guess I was kind of ready for it though..Would appreciate some ideas as I am in Indonesia and the language barrier is tough especially for car mechanics!!

During one of my initial drives (but not during the test drive of course!) I noticed the temp gauge went almost all the way up (not good when the weather's 38 degrees) and the engine was sputtering..immediately took it to a garage where they changed the plugs and oil etc..it kept doing it however, cooling down quickly if I'd stop for a few mins..losing easily 2 litres of water from radiator a day and needing top ups but no sign of leakage from pipes..topping up and leaving it overnight there was no loss..yesterday wouldn't start, and when finally started sputtered a lot, with some water and black bits coming from exhaust..this morning opened the radiator cap to top up and there were traces of oil..opened oil cap to find white gunk on it..wouldn't start at all today..towed off by a really hardcore looking SJ10!!

They have said head gasket and "four things inside on the valve tops" or something or other..
Really grateful if you guys could give me a few pointers and what I should maybe expect to have to replace in this scenario..
Cheers in advance
Andy

I was going to say thermostat until I read about the oil.
Headgasket is possible, but it sounds more to me like you might have a cracked engine block, as the water and oil was mixed and it appeared in the exhaust too.

The head gasket's the place to start.

Sounds like the head gasket to me , quite common I'am afraid. They really can't be run too hot for long.
The head may need skimming if it's not dead flat.
May be valve stem seals while it's apart.

Cheers guys..he definitely said head gasket and I think that's probably what he was saying was 'valve stem seals'..he's said 3 days or so in the shop so I'm guessing there's quite a lot to dismantle..thanks so much for the advice!!

yeah definitely sounds like headgasket to me as well....
as for the valve stem seals... if they are gone I might expect a bit of burning oil? Any exhaust smoke will be blue if it's burning oil.

Yeah guy's said the valve stem seals as well at least I think that's what they were..4 or 8 of 'em? Was indeed smokin a bit before it went in..anyway should be out and about by wednesday..job's costing about 55 quid in Indonesian which is pretty reasonable!
Cheers again!

£55 you wouldnt get a mechanic to look at for that here

Wow! £55? Even I'd have charged more.

You're lucky, I was expecting bad news, like you'd have to get rid because it was too expensive.

Well she's out of the garage with new head gasket and a few other bits, holding water and keeping reasonably cool, still sputtering a bit but haven't taken it far enough to really see..one of the belts (timing or fan) is squeaking a bit but I'm guessing they just reinstalled it a bit tighter than before..still getting black bits coming from exhaust tho..anyone knows why that is? Never had a car that did it before!

Like spots of oil?? Might just be leftover oil in the exhaust from the old valve stem oil seals and before the headgasket was changed, I would just wait and see if it clears up before worrying