What side of the block mate, if it is the drivers side, you may have a crack
in your water pipe that goes from the front of the block to the rear. i
would check that first. If there is no water in your oil, and it is still a
natural oil colour, there has been no breech with in the oil circuit. That
pipe runs from the front of the engine and is made of metal, check that for
a proper seal and that there is no cracks or holes  then worry about that no
fancy oil additive will stop damage only delay it

Peter

I forgot to mention there is also a rubber pipe extending from the left hand
side of the motor, to your heater box, it's found, and i tell you mate
bloody hard to replace lol  but with time and patience, you can do it
yourself. I found on my EA it was a matter of uding the pipe, and also it
attaches to the heater switch sort of gadget that allows hot air and cold
ait to travel to the inside of your car. DOnt know the proper name, but it
could be this rubber pipe that is leaking. It is found behind your inlet
manifold, and is i think either 3/4 inch diameter ot 1/2 inch. and is about
18 inches long.

Good luck

Peter

You got it :)

Not necessarily.

That particular area is a common site for thermostat housing leaks, from
either the upper or lower section of the housing, and I'd be checking things
out in the area thoroughly before I spent money on a head gasket.

If all it's doing is losing the coolant like you say, then my guess would
"no", but you have to bear in mind that I'm not there looking at your car in
person so I can't tell you with any certainty.

Have you taken the plugs out to check for colour change in one or more
cylinders?

If you've got a genuine head gasket problem, then there is no product other
than a new gasket that will fix it I'm afraid.

--
Regards,
Noddy.

Spent a while on the car today:

Very strange: no sign at all of the leak on the passenger side I
reported before - checked it when cold, drove the car for 15 minutes,
re-checked, let it cool down, checked again, and no leak. Maybe what I
saw originally was not coolant but liquid from elsewhere, although it
smelt like it coolant (couldn't see the colour as the water was mixed
with gunk from the side of the engine).

However, I did find another leak (or more likely, the only leak, and I
was incorrect about the other one). Drivers side of the engine, near the
front again. Appears to be coming from the join between the head and the
block, underneath the very front of the exhaust manifold (can't actually
see the site of the leak, but the side of the block is wet below that
point). So I take it that's the head gasket :-( At least there's still
no sign of mixing betwen oil and water.

Also FYI Noddy, I checked the plugs in the front two cylinders and both
appear normal (I don't know what a "washed" plug looks like exactly, but
both were a brownish tan colour which didn't look "washed" :-)).

Anyway, I'll have to take the car in this week to get it fixed.

At the same time I want to get the belts tightened/changed (engine is
making a very loud squeak-squeak-squeak when cold which I assume is the
belts?), and the rocker cover gasket replaced (weeping oil). Can someone
give me a vague estimate to how much head gasket + belts + rocker cover
gasket should cost, ignoring any unforeseen difficulties? Just a
ballpark figure, want to make sure I don't get ripped off :-)

Cheers,
Matt

Yep, was a head gasket.

Cost me a little more than estimated in here - $1051 - mighta got ripped
off a bit, but by the time they had the head off I wasn't going to
quibble over $200, and it was within the estimates they gave me.

The bill included a complete top-end gasket set, new cylinder head bolt
set, new thermostat, new coolant, welding the cylinder head in 3 places
(all minor), and all associated labour (8 hours).

Thanks for the help everyone.

Cheers,
Matt