It was a payen head gasket (I think I've been calling it permatex, but meant payen). It has metal rings round the cylinders and should be a high quality one. I paid extra for it and swapped out the standard one in the decoke set. It came from TRGB.
I'm going to pull the head in a bit and hoping that it is either a gasket failure or that the head nuts have loosened themselves. If this is the case I will order a new gasket along with new cylinder head studs, nuts and washers. I presume that the old studs can be easily removed with the double nut technique? I will also take care to re-torque the head once the engine is up to temperature, should I loosen teh nuts a 1/4 turn and then retorque, or just retorque straight away? Also when tightening initally I was tightening each nut by a quater turn at a time as recommended in haynes, should I tighten by smaller increments than this? cheers John --- John Kipping <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Many years ago while trying to look after a Herald for a friend of mine > the > engine was changed at least six times so you have some distance to go > yet - > I would say your problem is a poor quality head gasket and quite > possibly > nothing to do with you. What make was it? > John Kipping > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "John Hobson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Spitfire Enthusiast" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; > "Spitfires > mailing list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Sunday, August 18, 2002 1:02 AM > Subject: [spitfire-enthusiast] I don't believe it, gutted... > > > > I am completely gutted, the spitfire has broken again. I had just > fixed > > the non-working speedo and fitted new column stalks this morning and > took > > her for a quick 5 minute spin round the block to check the speedo was > > working (it did) and that the temperature and fuel guages worked > (they > > didn't, must be the voltage regulator) when I felt something 'go', > the > > engine instantly lost power and sounded like a lawn mower and there > was a > > lot more smoke coming from the exhaust. I limped round the corner > and > > parked up, ironically, in the same place as I broke down last time. > I > > have just got the car back in the garage after being towed 500m up > the > > hill. > > > > I took the rocker cover off to check the rockers were ok and that no > > valve springs had broken, they were all ok. I can only assume that > it is > > something in the bottom end of the engine that has gone. I can only > > assume that the overheating that occured previously had > stressed/damaged > > something in the bottom end. > > > > I am so pissed off, after my elation at having a working spitfire > > yesterday, I feel totally destroyed. I have never been so angry > before > > in my life, borne out of frustration. > > > > I am pretty sure that this is an engine rebuild job, which I don't > have > > the skills, time or equipment to do myself, nor the money to get it > done > > elsewhere. As a result have a very nice looking lump of metal > sitting in > > my garage once again, gathering dust. I would sell it except for the > > fact that it is now worth a fraction of the value it was previously. > I > > reckon that it was worth about #2600 when working, but now I'd be > lucky > > to get half that. > > > > I must be the unluckiest spitfire owner ever. No idea what I'm going > to > > with it now. > > John HotJobs - Search Thousands of New Jobs http://www.hotjobs.com /// [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list /// Send admin requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool /// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive /// Send list postings to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// Edit your replies! If they include this trailer, they will NOT be sent.
