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Pete wrote:Well, after inviting Mark out for the day it's actually me that won't be able to go to Blyton as my engine is still letting water into the pots . It pulled well on the rollers last week but went fluffy at the top of the rev range so we pulled the plugs and No.1 was steaming. Right we thought, head gasket. The head was pulled off and revealed pretty corroded waterways but with a new turbo gasket the seal looked good. Head back on, comp test was fine but when fired up the same thing's happened on No.4 now so back to the drawing board. Grrrrrrr!

Come anyway - bring the Radford, what could go wrong?

Pete wrote:If I have a go at building the fekin engines myself I couldn't really do any worse. Totally and utterly f*cked off!

I had this on a ported head, it had broken through into a waterway, to test for it I left the head on the block (torqued down) , took off the inlet and exhaust then pressurised the cooling system with a pressure tester, that way with a mirror (or phone!) you can look up the ports from the back and see if you have coolant running from them

Thanks Mark, maybe there's two problems not one. Will check that out, did you repair it or end up scrapping the head?

Scrapped the head and had another one done

cant you just get the brazing torch out and fill the hole with braze....


..that's what that guy selling those new weslake heads did to poor old astro.......

Pete wrote:Thanks Mark, maybe there's two problems not one. Will check that out, did you repair it or end up scrapping the head?

I can't remember when I spoke to you last weekend what the engine was Pete..did you say it was a 1380.?

App K wrote:

Pete wrote:Thanks Mark, maybe there's two problems not one. Will check that out, did you repair it or end up scrapping the head?

I can't remember when I spoke to you last weekend what the engine was Pete..did you say it was a 1380.?

Yup. Will hopefully find the 'leak' on Monday.

Pete wrote:

App K wrote:

Pete wrote:Thanks Mark, maybe there's two problems not one. Will check that out, did you repair it or end up scrapping the head?

I can't remember when I spoke to you last weekend what the engine was Pete..did you say it was a 1380.?

Yup. Will hopefully find the 'leak' on Monday.

As I said just make sure if it's been off set bored that the correct head gaskets been used. I think MED do them now.
Bri.

You would have to be very unlucky to have a leak in the block , we have only had two in the last 15 years and we do a lot of engines . One was a 1275 A+ that leaked in one of the cam follower bores , the other was a twin point block that leaked on number one cylinder bore even though it was only bored +20.
I have offset bored loads of blocks to 73.5mm and never had a bore leak .

It's normally the head that gives trouble with porosity / thin wall section of the brass plugs moving in head face .

I'd say that Simons theory is best scenario for you Pete. What casting is the head, and who has done the porting work ? Hopefully it's not something rare like a Downton 163.....

Thanks for that Simon . Its an MED A+, Series 6 full race head 38/31 offset. Got a few race miles on it but was recently cleaned and lapped in all the valves.

was it a good event chaps ?

It was a great chance to have a chat with timell & goff off the forum & I spent a lot of time with Bill Needham, what a guy!

But other than that, not much to commend it really.

Practice 1 - Ragged but OK, tyres were just warming up as I finished.
Practice 2 - Nailed it, but had a MASSIVE spin on the last 90° Right just before the timing lights.
Timed 1 - Pissed it down with rain
Timed 2 - Nearly as fast as P1
Timed 3 - Didn't bother, packed up & went home as it looked like the rain was coming back.

All round driving wise Meh.

Blyton is a rubbish venue when all you can do is one lap.