My wife's Suzuki Vitara (GV 1.6, 2003) is losing water and we cannot find any sign of an external leak. Someone suggested the head gasket is the problem but my mechanic is very doubtful about that but is scratching his head now! We lose most of the reservoir on a 60 mile journey. Any ideas please?

Possible external leak...?
Check around the water pump, that's a common culprit.
Then check rad hoses.
If no signs of external leak, and you are losing coolant, then you may have a bad Head Gasket.

Signs
http://www.fixkick.com/overheating.html#SIGNS

why not consider all signs. and let the evidence prove the puddn
???
head gasket. signs (huge list)
overheating.
water and steam gushing from rad cap or overfill tank
carbon in the rad neck hole, cap off cold.
oil in same place
water in engine pan, (milky)
steam out the tail pipe after engine fully warm.
water leaking down side of block at head/block juncture.
cylinder compression low on 1 or more.
cylinder leak down fails on 1 or more
the green/blue die test fails.
the rad leak down gauge test fails.
engine pings
lost engine power.
funny sounds.
i can list more, but that is enough.

could be head gasket leaking if there are no obvious leaks from hoses,gaskets,radiator etc

In my parts book it calls for a 16lb cap.
You may have damaged the head gasket before the radiator was replaced. Once an engine overheats, the gasket can be stretched and the head warped. The engine could be burning the coolant.

Hi,

Yes this is reparable both the head-gasket and the oil leaks.

Just price up the cost of a second hand motor and the repairs of the head-gasket and oil leaks.

Go with the cheapest.

Thanks

Jason

so your radiator is new...have the cylinder head check for warpage and top head gasket leaks...this one of the common causes of overheating

valve seals will not cause this kind of oil consumption, a scocred cylinder wall or broken piston ring will, not sure on the head gasket, does it have a combustion gases present in the radiator surge tank or bubbles while running? if not the head gasket is probaly ok.

this would more than likely be cause by a bad cylinder head gasket. I would bet 89% this is your problem.

Check the passanger side floor board for moisture this could indicate a bad heater core. Then I would check the engine oil and make sure its not milky looking (head gasket). make sure when you fill it let it run with the cap open with you looking into the cap to be sure is circulating and not vapor locked (air pocket)
hope this helps

If it's a fuel injected motor u coukd add better software
Can also flow and port the head
Will get at least 10% overall increase