Mopar Muscle Association UK

Was a cometic. It cost more than Pete's
Cometic say do not reuse, but they would..

Enough info about to indicate that plenty of people do, often up to 4 times especially race teams.

Looks like I didn't get away with it. But when it cost more than the pistons and rings.....

Or I have some other problem. Gasket that came off looked fine

Didn't check ring expanders in bore but they sat pretty proud and held the rails out.... All ring gaps checked Rings pistons same manufacturer and bore was checked for size.

I put in the care and attention the first time round



Dave

its really bugging me

so i did some more research

seemingly, regardless of the type of sealer on a gasket, orginal coating, coppercoat/permatex or hylomar applied afterwards, if you use antifreeze in the coolant for the initial start up you irreversibly compromise the seal of your head gasket

who knew?? probably everyone except me.

only found this detail in the FAQs on a manufacturers site... no mention in instructions...

and cometic gaskets... some suggest you use radweld/barrs leak....!


water seemingly is not very good a wetting, its molecules like to stick together and there is a limit to the size of hole or space it will flow into, machiening marks on block or head are probably too small.
also when it vapourises it leaves no residue and although will make a space in the gasket surface bigger as it expands and evaporates it ultimately allows the sealer to work as the engine heats and cools

glycol on the other hand does its best to worm its way into much much smaller spaces vaporises at a higher temperature, leaves a residue and those things combined stop the sealer from working, which involves melting and flowing into every slight gap.

my issues have 100% been caused by something stupid that ive done
but this may have been a contibuting factor.

brand new nice blue coolant for break in is a no-no

i thought i needed the best cooling possible new engines run hotter

seems that was a mistake

Dave

Ive never had any gasket sealing issues with running anti freeze in breaking in period. Maybe there other is underlying factors with head or deck that cause a problem if anti freeze is added?

i my case i think it stems from re use of my cometic gasket
and possibly too rough surface on the block

reuse might have been fine if my block was as smooth as specified in the instructions

given that i can see a difference between it and the head surfce with the naked eye. i'm of the opinion that i probably would have got away with it if the gasket had not been reused and i had used distilled water or ice out of the bottom of the freezer (nearly as good as distilled water) instead of antifreeze on both occasions

however i am conscious that i may still have a problem once i get it started up with its new gasket

i'm 100% sure i had a gasket problem (1 steam cleaned piston) but that may not have been what was causing the smoke, poor running yes but maybe not the whole story

i can trace back a string of minor mistakes that together build up to a failure.

ah the benfit of hindsight

learn something new every day

Dave

I never put antifreeze in a car for break-in but that was more to do with the chance that I would have to pull something apart and bin the new antifreeze.

I do find that a bit hard to believe.....what about new cars on a production line?

I know....

and they don't even run them in

i think its just a ethelyne glycol and modern gasket sealer thing

old cars now use modern gaskets and old fasioned coolant

modern cars run modern gaskets but don't use old fasioned blue coolant...

they use pink and ornage specially formulated for now

i dunnno

clutching at straws to explain away me wasting lots of money on a gasket that i won't be using

Dave

Buy bog standard gasket, you can buy half a dozen for the price you paid for the Cometic

Dave999 wrote: .......clutching at straws to explain away me wasting lots of money on a gasket that i won't be using Dave

You could always iron it, or put it under your mattress, or between 2 heavy books.........






Keep it simple, and cheap

I always use welseal both sides of the gasket,never had problems and that stuff was developed for copper gaskets.

bog standard gasket is in

ACL (RIP) MonoTorque old style fibre gasket with bits round the important areas like a big hard matress

guide plates and rockers back on

need to turn it over to just make sure that clearance is ok i did this with clay when i built it first and it was fine (miles and miles big domed chamber) but this gasket is 10 thou thinner


need to set lash mount up the fuel pump coil and top hose.
wipe down all of the oily hand prints

fill it up with holy water and let rip.

I want to try out my new jekyl and Hyde exhaust that anton built

normal operation noisy

hooligan setting..... makes blood come out of your tear ducts


we'll see....

on my hols tomorrow

so will be a week before i start it

Dave

Fingers crossed, Digger!!

Yeah good luck fella

Good luck Dave fingers crossed, now forget about it for a week and enjoy your Holiday.

started

ran on 4 cylinders

2 new plugs

ran on six

smoke... until exahust heated up

plugs all now look good

basic tune

running better


Dave

Excellent hopefully sorted this time.