Gasket expert?

Just a query about head gaskets and what they should look like.

After dismantling the manifolds looking for a serious air leak causing lousy
running (tale told in another thread) I decided to bite the bullet and get
an unleaded head, and give it a good decoke while I was at it. I didn't
find any cracks or horrors in the manifolds, but the head gasket had a lot
of black around and between the cylinder holes - oily and/or sooty, but no
evidence of blow-by or erosion as might be caused by a serious leak. Would
this be normal? It looks to me as though the head wasn't fully sealing in
the middle, as if the PO had tightened from the outside in, rather than from
the inside out. When I did the heads on the V8 last year, the outgoing
gaskets were pretty clean.

Also, there are a couple of places on the new head gasket where an oval hole
about 0.75" long (water passage, I think) has only a tiny round hole in the
gasket, and one (between 1 and 2) where there is no hole in the gasket at
all. The previous gasket was identical, so I have gone ahead and fitted it,
but I just wonder why LR bothered to design large holes for the water to
pass from block to head, and then fitted a gasket with holes much smaller
and, in one case, non-existent.

Anyroadup, the head's back on and she should be back on the road by the
weekend. Did I mention the head is a Turner Stage 1? Will report on any
improvement in due course.

--
Rich
==============================
Disco 300 Tdi auto
S2a 88" SW
Tiggrr (V8 trialler)

In message <[email protected]>, Richard Brookman
<[email protected]> writes
> Just a query about head gaskets and what they should look like.
>
>After dismantling the manifolds looking for a serious air leak causing lousy
>running (tale told in another thread) I decided to bite the bullet and get
>an unleaded head, and give it a good decoke while I was at it. I didn't
>find any cracks or horrors in the manifolds, but the head gasket had a lot
>of black around and between the cylinder holes - oily and/or sooty, but no
>evidence of blow-by or erosion as might be caused by a serious leak. Would
>this be normal? It looks to me as though the head wasn't fully sealing in
>the middle, as if the PO had tightened from the outside in, rather than from
>the inside out. When I did the heads on the V8 last year, the outgoing
>gaskets were pretty clean.
>
>Also, there are a couple of places on the new head gasket where an oval hole
>about 0.75" long (water passage, I think) has only a tiny round hole in the
>gasket, and one (between 1 and 2) where there is no hole in the gasket at
>all. The previous gasket was identical, so I have gone ahead and fitted it,
>but I just wonder why LR bothered to design large holes for the water to
>pass from block to head, and then fitted a gasket with holes much smaller
>and, in one case, non-existent.
>
>Anyroadup, the head's back on and she should be back on the road by the
>weekend. Did I mention the head is a Turner Stage 1? Will report on any
>improvement in due course.
>


All of the above sounds pretty normal. 2.25 head gaskets normally go
between 2 and 3. and that is what has caused your bad running.


--
Marc

In message <[email protected]>
"Richard Brookman" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Just a query about head gaskets and what they should look like.
>
> After dismantling the manifolds looking for a serious air leak causing lousy
> running (tale told in another thread) I decided to bite the bullet and get
> an unleaded head, and give it a good decoke while I was at it. I didn't
> find any cracks or horrors in the manifolds, but the head gasket had a lot
> of black around and between the cylinder holes - oily and/or sooty, but no
> evidence of blow-by or erosion as might be caused by a serious leak. Would
> this be normal? It looks to me as though the head wasn't fully sealing in
> the middle, as if the PO had tightened from the outside in, rather than from
> the inside out. When I did the heads on the V8 last year, the outgoing
> gaskets were pretty clean.
>
> Also, there are a couple of places on the new head gasket where an oval hole
> about 0.75" long (water passage, I think) has only a tiny round hole in the
> gasket, and one (between 1 and 2) where there is no hole in the gasket at
> all. The previous gasket was identical, so I have gone ahead and fitted it,
> but I just wonder why LR bothered to design large holes for the water to
> pass from block to head, and then fitted a gasket with holes much smaller
> and, in one case, non-existent.
>
> Anyroadup, the head's back on and she should be back on the road by the
> weekend. Did I mention the head is a Turner Stage 1? Will report on any
> improvement in due course.
>

On the 2¼ head one or two of waterways use the gasket to blank them off,
as anyone who has put one on upside down will have found out.....

Richard

--
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