think i lost my headgasket

while out and about i noticed a smell of burning oil (later to be found as oil on exhaust heat shield) and all of a sudden the car develops a constant misfire, under load, free revving, low and high rpm. theres pressure on the oil cap when the engine is running which is where the oil on the exhaust manifold cover came from. the water in the coolant tank is black. im assuming my headgasket let go. bit strange as the car only has 86k on it and the temp gauge has never risen more than 3/4 the way up, usually below half way tho up to about 3/4 stuck in traffic a couple weeks ago. so what are we looking at here? are the head studs the stretching type and will i need to get new studs when i change the gasket or can i re-use the current ones? also what should the head bolts be torqued down to and in what order?

I would have the coolant tested for exhaust gases first to confirm the headgasket has gone. Could just be a blocked pcv system causing the oil overpressure.

"the water in the coolant tank is black. " I would think that's conclusive. " has never risen more than 3/4 the way up" Is the radiator fan working? A car with a working cooling system does not raise the temperature above half way on the gauge.

If the waters black i'm surprised its still running tbh, also if its pressuring the crankcase its gotta be pressuring the cooling system too. Tell ya what, i'll take it off your hands, sure you wouldnt wanna spend more money on it lol

hello is your car diesle?? had a similar problem with my perkins 4cylinder.,. feard the worst but turned out to be a wet liner.. still had to replace gasket though.. not sure but think a liquid gasket is used.. j

fan is/was working. there was some pressure in the coolant tank tho i didnt try to open it till the engine was off, didnt seem lik anything more than the normal sort of pressure from the engine being warm when opening the cap. jaycey, shes a 2.4 10v petrol.

I'd say flush the coolent 1st, see what happens lad

wouldnt do me any good.. shes running like a pig, feels like its misfiring or not firing on all 5 cylinders, probably oil on some of the plugs. i went out there now to turn her around in the drive and it took a good 30-45 seconds to get it to turn over.

Must be the head then lad, what you for doing with it now, you going to fix it?

funny enough just about an hour before that happened i was saying to the GF that i was just going to keep it and get my insurance payed off for the year. ofcourse if someone offered the right money id let her go like but dunno if id even put her in the trader tbh. was chatting to some fella with a red cavalier who knows u the other night too.. he was saying he knows someone would buy her off me then tells me he works in the mot centre lol small world.