John :
I don't know that the problem was poor figure-8 gaskets, but I had a terrible
time getting the head gasket to stay sealed on my current TR3 motor, which was
eventually blamed on the liners not standing out of the block the correct
amount.
The solution that worked for me (so far !) was to solder some .020" half-hard
copper wire to the head gasket, surrounding each cylinder. The solder was only
to hold the wire in place (no grooves or anything). ISTR I wound up with 8-10
'tacks' per cylinder. I overlapped the ends of the wire a very small amount,
and sealed them with solder.
That was over 2 years, 10,000 miles ago, and it seems to be working fine,
although evidence suggests the wire may still be crushing a tiny bit over time
: I need to adjust the valves every few months.
Randall
59 TR3A daily driver
On Thursday, September 07, 2000 8:41 AM, John Gillis [SMTP:jgillis@tcd.ie]
wrote:
>
> Hi all,
> I just read this one on the TR2-4 home page. Because of the
> poor quality of the figure of eight liner gaskets and their lack of
> compressability (is that a word?) and ability to lift the liners
> above the top of the block someone came up with the idea of gluing a
> .012 inch thick length of copper wire to into a a grove in the
> gasket, thus aiding sealing and allowing the correct height for the
> liners to be obtained. Has anybody tried this or has anyone who has
> not found there to be problems with the gaskets available, either
> steel or copper.
> --
> John Gillis
> 1954 TR2 TS3618. October 1954 (ground up)
> 1964 Triumph 3TA 350cc (a little gem)
> Trinity College
> Dublin,
> IRELAND.
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