well cutting story short, i had a bad water leak on my si which resulted in the head gasket going to tha point where it was on tha motorway and it literally (after cutting out in smoke) would just turn over and would start at all. . . got it back to mine and me and my "old man" replaced the gasket, ht leads, sparkplugs, water pump. . . . got it back on the road now but it iz sluggish to what it was before the gasket went (noticed alot more where my mate blew me in his 1.4 metro gta last night which i had no problem over taking when it was running before the gasket went ) it only tha standard 1600cc so itz never going to be a speed demon as i know but is really lacking compared to before . . . any tips or things i could have done wrong as it was a diy job and not done in garage????? please help thanks

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Did you get the head skimmed while it was off, usually I blown headgasket will mean the head needs skimming. Did you bolt the head back down following the instructions on bolt order and torque settings?

I would recommend a compression check if possible, if it needs skimming/bad fitting gasket then this should show it.

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does it idle fine?
have you gapped the plugs correctly?
checked timing?

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was the head skimmed when you done the gasket....

one of the valves might be burning away as if the gasket went then the heat was to hot for the valves and put a dip on the side... to find out if the valves are bad you will need a compression test.

the car shud idle at 900/950....

and yer if the spark plugs are not gapped ok then bad idle and bad performance.

also when you done the gasket change did you put a brand new cambelt kit and a FULL gasket set including all the trimings for the valves ect....

Sounds like the timing is out to me

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as above timing or if you're lucky a bad air leak
although i'm quite shocked you did head gasket without changing timing belt!

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Is that the best you can do?
-
2000 V70 T5 SE - 2.3, 5 cylinder, 20V, VVT, Turbo, 250bhp, cream leather, climate control, the works!