8v Turbo Head Gasket Gone After 2thou Miles!

[carlh.1 8]

I had my engine built less then 2k miles ago. Engine was fine when running it in, i got the emerald ecu fitted and mapped up all was going fine on the road running 11psi boost. I did a track day at oulton park and the can ran brilliant all day, except for some scary brake fade! ha. The car didnt over heat, keeping just below 3/4 temp. When i got the car home i started it up a few days later and noticed water running down the block. Ive just taken the engine out striped it down and the head gasket was soaked like a sponge but no oil mixture. it had a so called uprated head gasket fitted which is 3 layer, are these types of gaskets supposed to swell up to create the seal or not? I know that the piston liners are supposed to stand proud from the block but the metal rings on the gasket were also proud from the gasket could this be the problem? Sorry for the essay just want to give as much info as possible as 5 grand seems to have been wasted on the build

[welshpug 1,666]

what engine is it?

[Tom Fenton 1,548]

The multi layer steel gaskets are more suited to solid deck (e.g. iron) blocks.

 

From your description it sounds like yours is a wet liner turbo conversion.

 

I used the standard type gasket on my turbo build, running up to about 18 pounds of boost no problems as yet.

 

It sounds like from your case that the fire rings on the gasket could well be OK and it was the sealing of the water to the "outside" of the block that is the problem. I'd try a standard gasket with some new bolts and see how you go.

[pablo 0]

on a slight sidenote do you have to use new bolts EVERY time you take the head off? Or if I used new bolts now could I reuse them in a couple of months? ta

[sounds of silence 2]

for the cost of new bolts , re-new is common practice esp if stretch bolts.

 

as for the engine would need more details on what engine it is block etc

 

when using the mls style gaskets both faces eg block and head must be 100% or the gasket will not seal correctly

 

have even seen in the past when the heads are skimmed if there is and kind of scoring on the surface the gasket will not take it up and allow the water to pass

[pug_ham 245 3 Cars]

on a slight sidenote do you have to use new bolts EVERY time you take the head off? Or if I used new bolts now could I reuse them in a couple of months? ta

On the XU10 engine you have a maximum bolt length for reuse but tbh its much better to simply replace them everytime imo.

 

Graham.

[pablo 0]

cool cheers!

[Have-a-go-al 0]

Just change the bolts for the price of them you havnt skimped on cost so far

[pablo 0]

ECP list a set for £18 is that about average and are they ok? For that price Ill defo replace them. I thought they would be dearer tbh.

[sounds of silence 2]

yes std bolts are not that expencive

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

Same here the std Gasket's cope quite well, If you run loads of boost then there are other ways to get around this, Who did the engine?