Bill, I will be very interested to hear of the ease and outcome of all those
leakdown tests. I am sure that the advice is sound (g), but I think that
the most likely fault is blown gasket between 2 and 3, with or without leaks
to the oil and water passages.
The cylinder wall between the centre 2 cylinders is extremely thin -
remember the origin of this engine was only 805cc, bored out through
successively larger engine capacities up to 1500cc !
I have had the head gasket blow in this way 4 times in the last 9 years on
my 1500 midget despite having block and head skimmed. Also there is
variation in the quality of head gaskets - I had one blow within 200yds of a
rebuild. Sent the resultant damaged gasket back to the manufacturer who
accepted a manufacturing fault and supplied a full new gasket set.
I rekon you could waste a lot of time searching for hissing noises when at
the end of the day the head will have to come off anyway. - Just do it !
-Just my view FWIW !!
Guy
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