Pinky II

[Paul.P]

Remeber Dico said they cost £30 for the set

£40 Monty !, but that is polished , think they cost $2 each to have polished, but hey, as Dico say's, 'its only money'.

[Dico]

And Dico was going to fit em this weekend but can't find the little blighters

[Paul.P]

And Dico was going to fit em this weekend but can't find the little blighters

Ohhhhhhhhh, expensive items to lose !

[Dico]

Anyone got the number for the RAC?

[Gary]

[Monty]

Anyone got the number for the RAC?

Well made it home from bedford without the RAC, but Pinky isn`t well. Since doing the head gasket over 2 weeks ago the car was running fine ie no high temp or losing water. Had no problems driving to bedford which is about 180 miles, so all together done approx 250 miles with the new gasket. Anyways after a few laps at Bedford the temp strated to rise pulled in to the pits and there was water coming from the right side of the car, tightened the bottom hose clip. Top up with water and ran the car to get the air out of the system, back on track couldn`t even do more then 1 lap and the temp was going up quick, back to the pit again and the water was being forced out of the expansion tank so thought it was just air trapped in the system so annother top up and bleed and back out again, but yet again the temp went up Another trip to the pits for Pinky to cool down.
Next time out on track Nick (Nchase) went out behind me and as u can guest i only did 1 lap and had to pull in to the pits and thats when Nick told me the water was pouring out of the exhaust on the track

So i`m thinking that either the gasket hasn`t sealed correctly or i`ve got a cracked head

So what test can be done?
Thinking of getting the sniffer test kit
compression test
pressure test

But don`t think this will tell me if the head is cracked

Need some advice on this as i`ve got a trip planned at the beginning of May

[Gary]

SBK has a spare engine

[Doug]

well, I can't see how a cracked head would allow water to "pour out of the exhaust" -- likely a crack would be small enough and the exhaust hot enough that you would not have liquid water at the tip.

head gasket maybe = compression test

but yeah check out the coolant too for engine soot

[chris.t]

the overflow of the header tank would indicate that the engine is gassing into the cooling system. Water from the exhaust would suggest that it is doing the opposite nevertheless head gasket failure deffo. Cracked head?? well hopefully the head gasket failure prevented that

[GeoffSmith]

Sounds like a big gap to me. Gases, especially at high pressure, are a lot easier to force through holes than water at moderate pressure.

During the compression, power and exhaust strokes, gases are being forced into the coolant at high pressure.

During the induction stroke, the cylinder pressure is low and water is being forced from the (pressursed) cooling system into the cylinder.

Sorry to say it Monty, but I think you need your head off again.

[chris.t]

Are you meant to run head gaskets in as a matter of interest and if so what is the procedure? incidently J how did you get back home?

[dapinky]

Chris,

I've never been one for 'running in' a head gasket as such. As long as the head bolts are re-torqued after first warm-up, then it has never been necessary.

Racing teams change then in the middle of a session, and then blast hell out of the car - if its good enough for them, i suppose it could be okay for me (even allowing for the fact that they only need the engine to last for a few hours anyway!)

Monty, did you get your head skimmed whilst it was off?

and did you ensure that the block face and head face were clean and free of any cr@p?

The only other thing i can think of is that the locating dowel may not be centralised in the hole, allowing the head face to have a slight gap????

Are the bolts new or old (they say you can re-use the head bolts - but i suppose they can be over-used if the head has been off a few times)??

Sorry mate, no other thoughts at the moment

[Monty]

Chris,

Managed to get home ok, stopped twice to top up the water. But as soon as i accelerated , say to over tacke a car the temp would rise quickly. But luckly i had the fans on a switch to keep her cool. I could do about 70mph without to much of a problem.

Dave
Didn`t have the head skimmed as i checked with a straight edge and feeler gauges to see if it was warped, it seemed fine. I cleaned most of the old gasket with a stanley blade then cleaned the rest up with used scouring pad (not the metal type)
Yeah Dave is right, u don`t have to renew the head bolts and there`s nothing in the manual to say u have to run it in, infact it says nothing about re-torqued after a warm-up Just hoping it`s the head gasket thats not sealed correctly
What i`m worried about now have i done any more damaged as the car nearly red lined on the temp on track and that was with the cooling fans switched on

What i need to know do i need to leave the head on to do some test or just get the head off to inspect as i could be getting on with this

Thinking of taking the head to this place as it`s not to far for me
www.impulsedevelopments.co.uk/index.htm

[GeoffSmith]

Smurphy,

You should check out Lotuska's gasket findings.

Geoff

[Monty]

Smurphy,

You should check out Lotuska's gasket findings.

Geoff

Thanks Geoff, now thats a shock. I never noticed that hole missing think Kmckmc head gasket needs more investgating

[Specky]

Monty,

Can you find a hole missing!!!

Hope you sort it soon

TTFN

[paulwatkins]

Monty, I think you've found the source of your problems!

I got to admit that when I compared both Lotus and kmc gaskets together I didn't notice there was a 'missing hole'. But I wasnt looking that closely.

I'll get my spare kmc gasket out tomorrow and compare it to lotuska's pictures to see if mine is the same.

Glad I went with the Lotus one now!

[GeoffSmith]

I'll get my spare kmc gasket out tomorrow and compare it to lotuska's pictures to see if mine is the same.

Mine is.

[Sy V]

Guys

See Mark's latest comparative post on his thread - it looks like there's no corresponding head hole...

[Monty]

Yep, looks like Kmckmc head gasket is ok to use so i`ve got to find another reason to blame it on

I`ve ordered head gasket from Chris neil`s.