Well, this evening I was putting some finishing touches on assembling the
'72 Midget in hopes of firing it up tomorrow. After running out and getting
some new heater hose and then finishing up a few electical details, I
decided to quit for the night, but not before filling the crankcase with
oil and the cooling system with a 50 percent mixture of anti-freeze and
water. I had one quart of oil left to go when a glistening caught my eye.
Low and behold, there is coolant oozing out from the sparkplug side of the
head gasket, mostly near the front half of the engine. A small puddle was
developing on the little shelf where the engine ID goes. What the
hell...?!? I had the block and head checked for being level and the head
was pressure tested and was perfect. I, of course, used a new, recently
purchased head gasket (not from M#ss or VB either). I have never seen this
happen before and I have put many engines together and even more head
gaskets on. The studs were torqued in the correct order and set to 50 lbs
(drill point studs). The stud holes in the block where counter sunk bu the
machine sho too. I double checked the 5 studs on that side of the engine
and they were still at 50ibs. I also cleaned both surfaces really good
before assembly.
I drained the coolant out immediately, but before I tear the head off, I'm
hoping someone will tell me this will go away once I warm up the engine and
re-torque the head, but this will be a new one on me. I can't imagine what
could be wrong other than a faulty head gasket. Has anyone experience
something similar before that can shed a little light on what's going on
here?
Gerard
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G G Gerard Chateauvieux
E A
R R pixelsmith@gerardsgarage.com
A A
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