Plucking up the courage... Head gasket and cambelt

2ndyouth said:

It was assembled by qualitycylinderheads. The hotspots were in when they sent it to me.

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Never heard of them, but they should have assembled it properly if they do a lot of heads.
Can you look down the glow plug holes with a dentists mirror and a small torch to see what is obstructing the plugs?

glow plugs sit through injector shrouds

jamesmartin said:

glow plugs sit through injector shrouds

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Hope the head place fitted them right then.

Are these injector shrouds moveable or fixed? Is there any reason why they should be obstructing the glow plugs on cylinders 1 & 3?

moveable but not with head on ,they tap in and out ,have look to see if hole on shroud aligns with hole in head

Which holes are we talking about here? Is there a hole in the shroud through which the glow plug passes?

have a look see where issue is

Is there a diagram that could be posted so I can get my head around this? I'd love to avoid taking the head off again if I can.

try post 61

So, it's item 13 on the diagram. If it's been inserted the wrong way around, can it be turned in the head or removed without taking the head off?

I've taken some pictures of the issue with getting my glow plugs in using cylinders 1 and 2. Cylinder 1 glow plug recess looks like this



And the glow plug only goes in like this



Cylinder 2 glow plug recess looks like this



And the glow plug goes in like this



It seems that the hole is simply too small on two of the cylinders for the element to pass through. Is this a removable sleeve or collet? Otherwise I just can't explain it.

That looks as though the copper element sleeve has come adrift and stuck in the hole!

Have you tried turning them with a screwdriver?

If you can you should be able to remove them fairly easily.

I've now taken the head off again and can clearly see that the glow plug holes for cylinders 2 and 3 have what appears to be the remains of previous glow plugs in there. They are pretty solid (but a gentle use of my new tap revealed it to be copper) so I don't want to get too "enthusiastic" and damage the head which will probably have to be returned.

I thought I would also try a loose fitting of an injector and they will not seat all the way down. Staying about 9mm proud so, Monday morning, I'll make a quick call to the supplier and ask them to take it back and deal with it. Could it be the wrong head completely or am I missing something with the injectors?

where did you get head from was it supposed to be checked etc?

qualitycylinderheads.co.uk based in Cornwall

They were very helpful on the phone and I'm sure will be keen to solve the problem.

bought as just second hand

Remanufactured. It was painted and had new valves all seated and sprung.

not very well in that case then ,once you get it back or another measure hot spot protrusion

2ndyouth said:

qualitycylinderheads.co.uk based in Cornwall

They were very helpful on the phone and I'm sure will be keen to solve the problem.

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Ive never heard of these people, but its pretty poor if they are leaving bits of metal down the holes in a head.
Always makes sense to try and source these services locally, so that you can deal with any problems face to face. Or use someone that has been personally recommended.
The cheapest doesn't always turn out to be the best value with these jobs.

"I thought I would also try a loose fitting of an injector and they will not seat all the way down. Staying about 9mm proud so, Monday morning, I'll make a quick call to the supplier and ask them to take it back and deal with it. Could it be the wrong head completely or am I missing something with the injectors?"

That is correct - they will not go all the way down. they need to sit a bit proud to allow them to be tightened down onto the little steel sealing washers at the pintle end of the injector. Make sure you use both the steel and larger copper washers when reassembling, otherwise you'll be forever trying to get a good seal.