Can anyone help - head gasket problem?

The head is cracked. They did a lousy job of cleaning the surfaces. The head is warped. They mixed old and new head bolts. They didn't use new torque to yield head bolts. The didn't believe in torquing patterns. They torqued by feel.

There's a hundred ways to replace a head gasket. Only one of them is good.

There might not be anything wrong. The water coming out of the bottle could have just been an overfull bottle and air burping out of a hot system.

If a garage did this work, then they didn't do it right. You should go back to them ,calmly, and ask them to sort it out. If they say they are going to charge you again then you need to get another garage, preferably an independent auto engineer, to identify the problems. Tell the first garage that you are going to do this. The engineer should be able to tell you if the work was done competently, and what if anything they missed. You may need to be prepared to go to a small clams court to get things put right......

If the first garage was actually your mate (not a garage), then it's probably your hard luck.

Consider joining "Which?" and getting their legal advice.

Sounds like the head is warped...or you have a completely stuck thermostat... have you checked to see if the water is circulating... maybe your water pump is broken and that is what caused the problem in the first place. I very nearly fitted a gasket upside down once and that would have blocked the water flow.

Because they never had the Head re-faced and Crack tested, you cant cut corners on jobs like that, some try to increase there profit margin, take it back to whoever did it and tell them to put it right, if a garage did the work, your invoice shut have the price of the engineering work carried out on the head, if it dont, sorry, you have been had

Did it overheat again or just start getting coolant it oil and vice versa.....two things that can happen is that you might have blocked radiator/coolant pipes, faulty water pump or stuck thermostat.

The other that could have happened is when the mechanics bolted the head back onto the engine, they could have applied the wrong torque to the bolts or the mating surfaces where not even as in warped.

Sounds like you have a warped head it should have been skimmed whilst it was off. It only costs about #30 extra. a reputable garage should have cheeked if this was needed and recommended it if required. I think you need to consult citizens advice to see if the garage is linked to re do the job for free

Take it back to the garage who did the head.

they did not replace the head gasket with a new gasket, they will it wil off tea bags and then once your far enough from the garage that you couldnt not push the car back they set off the little tea bag bang, boom see you bye head gasket and lots of moneys :D