Blown head gasket & uprated nuts.

[dougbgt6]

On the way to Thames meeting, torential rain and hail. Good news, my new wiper arms and blades actually work! It was weak arm springs all along! Also, without thinking, turned on my rear window demist, looked in the mirror, good lord! It's working!

 

Then disaster. Massive grid lock on 4 lane roundabout off M4 junction 5. Sat for 30 minutes temperature gauge climbing, never been above half way before but now up to 
3/4!  Eventually pulled away, 3 massive backfires, engine died and I couldn't restart.

 

Called the lads at the meeting, Micky and John came out and pushed me to relative safety. Also brought some most welcome beer, on the premise that I was no longer driving and could drink as much as I like! Called recovery, got me home before midnight, all fairly painless.

 

So, Payen head gasket, uprated nuts and washers. Does any body do uprated nuts and washers cheaper than Rimmers? £63 just for the nuts!

[AidanT]

Hi Doug

 

have you tried jigsaw?

 

http://www.jigsawracingservices.co.uk/engines.htm

 

Not sure how "uprated" theirs are but the price looks better Might be worth giving them a call

 

Aidan

[Pete Lewis]

 heck Doug thats a bummer,  bad luck good to have some friends around when the  Grim Reefer calls

 

 

103810 is the main nut   quoted ,  canley £1.60   is the std nut as far as i can see 

  some have HD suffix or rimmers a X suffix  

  ring canley may enlighten a source

 

 

Pete

[dougbgt6]

Thanks Pete, I'm quite looking forward to having the head off, first time for thirty years! If only it would stop raining. Must resist the voice in my head saying "unleaded, stage 2, unleaded, stage 2"

[Pete Lewis]

Listen to your heart , youre heads full of misguided we, ve all been there

 

Go for it

 

 

pete

[Clive]

Peter burgess (Google him!) Is rather good with heads. But a nice 3 angle seat cut, bit of a skim and some unleaded seats are a very good value improvement. What cam do you have? If not already fitted, a mk2/early mk3 profile is another good improvement...

And another vote for canleys.

[dougbgt6]

Yes I can confirm I have a cam.   Not really into that sort of thing, everything standard, then nothing can go wrong! Right?    

 

This is true. Earlier on I saw my neighbour who's taken his cylinder head to be unleaded, skimmed and ported. Today they told him they'd done a lot of the work only to find 2 of the valve seats were cracked. It's scrap!

 

Limp home mode has come on on my modern again, where's it all gonna end?  

[Clive]

If you know which engine is fitted, that should give you an idea what cam is currently fitted, but one can never be certain. The std mk2 gt6 cam is lovely, way nicer than the later one that was soft and comparatively lifeless. In fact, if your car is toggles it should have the mk2 cam in it, along with flat topped pistons. But IIRC you have domed pistons, so a later engine? Or is my mind playing more tricks on me.

[dougbgt6]

Clive,

 

My car is a Feb 73 late GT6 mk3, I bought it in 78. The engine is original although it's had two re-bores accompanied by one crank regrind and one replacement crank. Nothing done to the head, I've never had a head gasket failure before, which means the current head gasket is 25+ years old!. The first re-bore was due to the first owner towing a boat too heavy for the car. The second due to a failure of the oil filter seal and my Ex not noticing the oil warning light

 

The pistons should be domed but I can't remember for the life of me if they gave me domed the last time I put it back together! I'm about to find out.   I'm told it wouldn't run too well as standard with flat top pistons. Is "toggles" a misprint or something I should know about?

 

Doug

[Clive]

I don't remember anything about toggles! Sums my day up. No idea what I thought I had typed.

I thought yours was a Rotoflex car, and I do remember pistons being mentioned.

If you want a bit more zing, changing the engine to mk2 spec would be a very good start!

But understandable to keep it standard. But it was you who mentioned changing the head!

[dougbgt6]

Yes, it was me, the lure of the dark side! But domed piston cars have different heads, so a lot of things to change!

[Clive]

No reason to change the pistons or head. I believe the flat pistons are a little better a!omg with the shallower matching head, but the cam change would still perk your car up nicely. Guess it depends if you like the low rev type driving, or want to move the power and up the rev range. But remember the earlier cam is a std production cam, so still very well behaved. Personally I am not keen on modified fast road cams, my experiments with them have always been disappointing, ending up with an engine that is just not as nice to drive. And then reverting back. You live and learn! I do like an engine that can rev nicely though....

[Colin Lindsay]

 Personally I am not keen on modified fast road cams, my experiments with them have always been disappointing, ending up with an engine that is just not as nice to drive. And then reverting back. You live and learn! I do like an engine that can rev nicely though....

 

Me neither!! I tried a few variations of uprated cam and they were all very harsh, not at all suited for road driving, or at least not they way I drive. Similarly the lightened flywheel path just made a very 'unsubstantial' engine, lighter but much much noisier and unpleasant.