bitten the bullet

cfwnotloB said:

thanks for the replies - head in for skim and consensus of opinion is 'bodged rebuild last time'
mileage 70 k so if I get 3 years out of it I will be well happy as its only going to be used as a second car 5k max probably - unless no1 car goes bang or the wife's

Click to expand...

Do the repair properly and it'll last for 50K+ miles. Do it badly and it'll last 5K miles.

Nodge68 said:

Do the repair properly and it'll last for 50K+ miles. Do it badly and it'll last 5K miles.

Click to expand...

hopefully - with all the advice, info from here it will be the former

Get them to check the head for hardness before skimming. If it was very badly overheated the alloy may have gone soft and you'll be doing it again next year.

Or do like I did and through a Payne Elastomer at it and hope for the best. It'll probably last two or three years at your mileage.

it would appear that the head saver shim was on the block - never looked at this when i stripped it - only on inspection of the shim /gasket water marks - which explains the indentations on the head and water loss

so head in to be skimmed and also valve seats re-cut and re lapped

hopefully pick up Friday and weather / wife permitting rebuilt over the weekend

So the shim from the MLS gasket was on the block. No wonder the thing went wrong. It's obviously been repaired by a muppet. Some people shouldn't be allowed to work on any car engine, let alone a K series.

Nodge68 said:

So the shim from the MLS gasket was on the block. No wonder the thing went wrong. It's obviously been repaired by a muppet. Some people shouldn't be allowed to work on any car engine, let alone a K series.

Click to expand...

could they not be allowed to work on them VW thingies, scarabs or some such!