Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Nick W]

well it's not a crappy old FORD 
so probably just needs tightening 

It's an equally old piece of Vauxhall rubber. Which can be cut off the metal ends it's crimped onto, then replaced with a nice new length of oil resistant hose and a couple of Jubilee clips. Easy. And cheap

[iansoutham]

Had to tighten PAS pipe clamps by about 2 turns (bottom of pipe was actually free to move).

Cylinder head is skimmed 2 thou and my engineer says he has seen loads of these head gaskets failing on different cars recently. All have been redone within the last 5-6years (even from main dealers) and all showing signs of the metal fire rings being the problem so is wondering if the quality of the metal is the problem? Certainly, my gasket was in one piece and not bad condition but you could just see where it was getting past the fire ring.

[dave the builder]

I've had the fire ring rust out on an OEM gasket
Also noticed at about 100K+ vauxhall 4 bangers had HG fails
2 thou is not much 
I tended to flat/resurface heads myself in the past on a sheet of thick steel with emery glued to it with no issues .
cleaning up head bolt hole threads and a bit of lube on the threads ensures a more accurate torque
though I always go " click and a bit " 

sounds like you are getting there 

Had to tighten PAS pipe clamps by about 2 turns (bottom of pipe was actually free to move).

Had that a few times on Carlton's ,which is the same reservoir ,so thought it might just need a nip up on yours's   
saves another messy job 

[iansoutham]

I've had the fire ring rust out on an OEM gasket
Also noticed at about 100K+ vauxhall 4 bangers had HG fails
2 thou is not much 
I tended to flat/resurface heads myself in the past on a sheet of thick steel with emery glued to it with no issues .
cleaning up head bolt hole threads and a bit of lube on the threads ensures a more accurate torque
though I always go " click and a bit " 

sounds like you are getting there 

Had to tighten PAS pipe clamps by about 2 turns (bottom of pipe was actually free to move).

Had that a few times on Carlton's ,which is the same reservoir ,so thought it might just need a nip up on yours's   
saves another messy job 

Cylinder head height is now 0.5mm down from original height, any more would be too close to the inlets for my liking. I know you “can” go 2mm as have done that on my old Cav to get rid of corrosion but it had to run super unleaded and “pinked” like hell when cold or on normal fuel

[iansoutham]

Well, it runs and drives again, just got to keep eye on the cam seals as they leaked originally when started but seem to have stopped now.

[dave the builder]

maybe a bit of old coolant (from the HG fail) in the oil ways has worked through to the cam seals but now the oil, being thicker ,won't pass and the seals have seated again 
It's good you're up and running again though 

[iansoutham]

Both cam seals changed again, looks like I potentially missed a bit of contamination on the end of the cams whilst rebuilding it (in the cold and rain) so have changed them up, fitted new seals and all appears good so far. Time will tell....

Need to change the cam sprocket bolts though as they have been reused about 3 times now and the exhaust one is “wobbling” at the head when the sprocket is perfectly fine. Easy enough to do though.