Fixing a blown head gasket may just have got a lot easier and much less expensive with the arrival in New Zealand of a special product that makes a permanent repair.

The new K-Seal Ultimate Head Gasket Repair works in minutes, enabling stricken motorists to get back on the road with very little cost incurred.

Head gasket problems can be very expensive, with repair bills running into thousands of dollars. For some older vehicles, that might be enough to consign them to the scrap heap, but K-Seal is now giving them a second life.

K-Seal has already built a strong reputation in New Zealand based on the performance of its award-winning Radiator Leak Repair, and the New Zealand distributor, Griffiths Equipment, says the new Head Gasket Repair is winning similar praise in overseas markets.

“A blown head gasket used to be a terminal condition for some vehicles, but it’s now possible to make a permanent repair without having to visit the workshop – it can be done in your own home garage or driveway,” says Tim Paterson, national sales manager for Griffiths Equipment.

The K-Seal Ultimate formula features a unique blend of chemical ingredients, including ceramic micro-fibres and copper particles, which act to seal holes and imperfections in head gaskets. Engine heat will cure the mixture, taking just a few minutes of running time.

And unlike some other sealants on the market, the K-Seal product won’t block a heater matrix.

K-Seal has developed the product to permanently repair and fix most head gasket failures including:

• Coolant to cylinder leaks
• Cylinder to coolant leaks
• Blown head gaskets
• In some situations, even coolant to oil leaks.

If coolant is leaking from the engine, the sealant will follow the coolant through the gap and close it up, with the micro-fibres and particles meshing together inside it. This mesh, when it is exposed to both the gases within the combustion chamber and the heat of the engine, fixes together and seals the hole, restoring the gasket to full health and allowing it to continue doing its job in the face of high pressure and temperature.

Because the particles are so small, they can only seal holes that are up to 0.635mm in diameter, so if they manage to find their way down passages in the heater core or radiator, they won’t have any effect on them. This negates any possible chance that the sealant could inadvertently damage other parts of the engine.

These results have been independently tested at Brighton University, where the product is classed as meeting the demands of the ASTM D3147 standard.

In another independently run test just conducted by the British magazine, “Car Mechanics”, a 2002 BMW 316i suffering from a terminal case of head gasket failure was resurrected from the graveyard through the use of K-Seal.

After treating the engine to a bottle of K-Seal Ultimate Head Gasket Repair, the magazine wrote: “The engine has run for a couple of days and the coolant is still a blue-green colour. There’s no overheating, the heater blows hot when required, and the fan cuts in and out.

The new K-Seal Ultimate Head Gasket Repair is suitable for use with all water-cooled engines, and a single-use bottle is deemed sufficient to treat cars, SUVs and light trucks. It is compatible with all brands of coolant, and there is no need to drain or flush the cooling system.

It can be added to a hot or cold engine, and will work even in the depths of a cold hard winter, being freeze-proof to -39C. It also comes with its own anti-rust protection.

K-Seal Ultimate is available in a large single-use pack from automotive retail outlets throughout New Zealand.