head gasket gone,,,,oooooooo

[nicmk1est]

hi all

after a nice drive,,,got back to mine and rough idle and cream in oil filler cap,,,guess what!head gasket gone  ??)
now i will be getting headgasket and new mani-gasket for cw
anything i should do before re-fiting,,advice or tips
should i silicone seal the head gasket? :-/
torque setting on original bolts?

thanks all

[Jonny-Jimbo]

I personally wouldn't use silicon - you have no control over where it squeezes to, and you really don't want it going into the cylinders, nor the water jacket. Plus then you end up with more mating faces that could fail, and the head gasket won't 'squish' as much as it should as the silicon will take up much of that.

[Spider]

Use a Payen gasket and check the head and block for flatness (place the edge of a steel rule on the surface and check for light shining through). Also tighten head down to original torque otherwise you will have a leaky head gasket (ask me how I know) and re torque it after you have been for a good long drive and got the engine upto temp, best to do it whilst the engine is still hot.

[Richard B]

Make sure that you have the correct cylinder head nuts. They are on 3/8" UNF on a MkI at 45-46lb/ft

You can use "Wellseal" if you are concerned about a repeat failure. OE copper asbestos gaskets are the best if you can find one.

Quite often people skip the retorque on a MkI head as its too much trouble to take the manifolds off a second time.

[cruza]

Loctite 510 is used for troublesome (extremely modified) cylinder heads. A light coating both sides.
A flat block and head correctly torqued will give no trouble though.

Steve

[DJB_Harvey]

Right ! ... My tip for the job is to remove the stud that holds the manifolds together and replace it with a bolt afterwards 3/8 UNC ... The result is you can re-torque the head easier after it's been run up by just moving the inlet manifold out of the way leaving the exhaust side in situ !
Always use a Payen gasket and the correct high tensile nuts AND washers . Should be trouble free then :)

[dazzer]

Or replace the centre head studs with MKII studs which will require the block and head drilling and tapping. Definitely no problems thereafter, however much you thrash the living daylights out of it. You then torque the centre studs to 65 and the original studs on the thin edge of the head to 45... Well worth the effort.

[nicmk1est]

one shit day-----did the re-torque and every thing is ok,then fuel pissing out of front carb,,float valve another new one that dont work,,,,then knock knock from bottom end >:(  at the moment feel like smashing it then burning it,,,sorry for the rant and rave

[Deleted User]

Nick! From memory you're fairly close to me, so if you do want to burn it, push it outside and I'll pick it up to save you the galon of petrol!!!

In all seriousness, it is really annoying what that sort of thing happens, hope you get the problems sorted soon. I'd offer to help, but I don't have a spare engine at the moment.

[nicmk1est]

well rant and rave over and done with!!! :)
going to remove the sump and check the main bearings before ordering and check crank for wear,,i`m hopeing to buy vandervell bearings for cw,,seeing they are the best i`ve read on here,,,on top of all that i got about 4weeks til mot,it WILL pass :D

[nicmk1est]

can you change the main bearings in situ by just removing the caps and push out the top half bearing or is it complete strip g/box out,fly off and front n rear plates

[Richard B]

1555 wrote:

can you change the main bearings in situ by just removing the caps and push out the top half bearing

Yes did it on a MkII PI Estate years ago.

You have to take off one of the struts, undo the suspension X-cross member and swing it out of the way of the sump.

Don't forget to take the fan belt off or you can't drop/loosen the crank enough to get the front bearing out. Do the thrust washers at the same time.  :-/

[nicmk1est]

thats good news,not having to remove and strip it,,,will check the thrust washers,,,can do that before ordering main bearings or do the new main bearings have to be in to check thrust washers?

[Richard B]

You can check the thrusts before changing the bearings.

Trouble is you wont know which sizes to get as its's a trial & measure exercise.

I'd suggest get a couple of STD and a couple of 5thou.  :-/