Another thing to look for on new composition head gaskets is to torque the head cold and after setting the valves and running the engine until it is at normal operating temperatures, retorque the head while hot. Most of the time, you will find that once heated, the head bolts will be far below the torque specifications because the gasket seats in when it comes up to temp.
Once torqued to spec hot, allow the engine to cool down and reset the valves and you should have much better luck. Joe -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Zahid Ahsanullah Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 8:13 AM To: Spitfires; Triumphs Subject: I Could Use Some Help GlacierI'm having head gasket failures after a recent overhaul of my 1980 Spitfire 1500. The gasket at cylinders 1 and 2 blew up after 200 miles of the rebuild. The gasket used was the cheap ($10) aftermarket version with dimpled metal coating. This gasket was hard to put in as the holes for the studs seemed a little off and some holes had to be slightly deformed to fit. So the failure seemed to be likely due to that, but the new gasket is the $20 original equipment and this has also blown in just 20 miles!! I has not pulled the head yet as the car seems to drive okay cold but it is missing a full bottle of coolant from the overflow bottle. The same thing had happened previously. I did not check to see if the head was warped when I put it in and this does not seem likely either as the car had never overheated before. The engine had seized after oil pump failure but the gauge never showed any more than regular temperature. There was also no apparant cylinder damage due to that. Here's the list work done: 1. cylinder oversized to .020 and new pistons 2. The block is recessed (top of the bore has a recess that allows better sealing with gasket, this was a problem with earlier spits) 3. full head rebuilt 4. runs on weber DGEV 5. new Crane ignition 6. Haynes torque sequence followed for tightening head 7. new water pump 8. engine runs luke warm on cool days and about the same on cold ones. New winter thermostat installed. I hope someone can help, its spring and it won't be long before the texas hot weather moves in. Best Wishes Zahid *** http://www.team.net/the-local *** Your messages not reaching the list? Check out http://www.team.net/posting.html *** unsubscribe/change address requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or try *** http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool *** http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo *** Archives at http://www.team.net/archive *** Edit your replies!
