[TR] TR6 woes Part 1

[Peter Arakelian]

Many of you know parts of what has happened with my TR6, but I need to share
the entire story.  It's long, but bear with me.

It began last October on the way to Triumphest from Buellton up the coast
highway, when my cockpit filled with smoke in Carmel.  Turns out the head
gasket was blown - not between cylinders, not into the water jacket, but out
into the passageway where the push rods run.  After consulting with two very
helpful shops along the way, The Engine Room in Santa Cruz and Wright's in San
Rafael, I took it easy and made the drive home - car ran great, got 22 mpg!

OK, pull the head.  This is a TR6 so of course it was a problem.  I could not
get four of the studs out.  In fear of breaking the studs off if I went to the
max on them, I e-mailed a friend at XK's Unlimited in San Luis Obispo for
advice. To my surprise I got a reply from Jason Len, the owner, who assured me
that whatever problem I ran into they could solve.  They would even send a
trailer down free of charge to take my car up there and make me a good price
on all the work to get the word out. I used everything I had, even a huge pipe
wrench, but only succeeded in wiping all the threads off of the studs.



Peter Arakelian - '71 TR6, Daily Driver