A friend of mine has a 1.4 MGZR; her's was showing early signs of HGF. On the basis of nothing to loose, I suggested trying a bottle of Wynnes version of K-seal.

That was before Christmas, and touch wood, she hasn't had any problems since.

I'd say give it a go. ~£10 isn't too much to loose!

I've had to replace a couple of rads: one went like the OP's with the cooling fins having all but completely disappeared. The other was a bit stranger - the 'crimping' that held the plastic 'side tanks' on to the core failed and resulted in a slow steady leak. The leak was just above the lower main ...

I don't know what you're worried about! Plenty of life left in that

As for getting a replacement, I got mine from Camberley Auto Factors, but I needed it PDQ, even so it wasn't a bad price.

When it comes to taking the head off, I use a "reverse tigthening" procedure - use the order in the manual (basically start in the middle and work out to the edges) and loosen 1/8 turn at a time. I don't know if it really does any good, but it makes me feel better that I'm not going to war...

I take it you've tried the obvious thing and checked the PAS fluid level?!

It could be that as the system warms up, the oil expands just enough to "fill" the pump, hence the noise disappearing?

I'd say £200-300 sounds pretty good for all that work.

Sounds to me like either the coolant rail or possibly the water pump. Coolant rail: If you look at the inlet manifold at the end nearest the cam belt, you'll see a water pipe going in to it (about 10mm dia), this is the so called "jiggle valve". For some reason this is a weakness and can l...

With the emphasis on CAREFULLY

If you use a large flat blade screw driver, that will spread the load on the trim.

The bulb is a horrible little panel illumination type that is almost, but not quite the same as the instrument panel illumination size. Doh

I haven't got any experience, but it sounds a bit suspect to me, but then I'm a very cynical person (equally, I've rarely been proved wrong in things like this - much to my wife's disgust!). I think some of the key questions to ask is how long will it take to pay back the training fees? Or there any...

Yes, I did it to the rally car (the PAS rack is "quicker" than the manual). In addition to ETV's list, you'll also need the subframe as the manual and PAS racks are different diametres and the PAS won't fit in a manual subframe :S It isn't a hard job, just lots of little bits that need doi...