Well boys and girls,
The cause of the coolant leak has been determined.
After spending the first sunny afternoon in San Francisco since July 3rd
trying a couple good suggestions like sealing the stud threads (thanks WST)
from listmembers, I still found that the leak was not improved at all. I
used a little compressed air to pressurize the system and found there was
air escaping all along the sparkplug side of the head gasket and so... "off
with it's head!"
It turns out the solution was the simple and obvious one... Despite the
fact that I just didn't want to believe that a brand new the head gasket
could be bad, even before running the engine, it turned out it WAS the
culprit. My theory is that the difference in thickness between the
reinforcing rings that seal the cylinders and the thickness of the rest of
the gasket prevented the water jacket holes from sealing. That's the only
explanation as the gasket appears fine, but there is an obvious difference
that can be felt even after it being torqued down. I spent the rest of the
afternoon installing (another) new head gasket and the problem is cured.
Unfortunately there wasn't anything left of the day to get it outside and
start it up. Tomorrow I'll finish a couple last hookups and see what other
trouble I can get into.
Thanks to everyone who had some thoughts on the matter... including the
standby... "it leaks 'cause it's British". Well... so far it doesn't leak
any oil, but then there is always tomorrow...'-)
Gerard
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G G Gerard Chateauvieux
E A
R R pixelsmith@gerardsgarage.com
A A
R G Pixelsmith on Duty
D E
S http://www.gerardsgarage.com
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