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Head Gasket Issues.


mick260

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Hi everyone. I have an l28 F54 block with a N42 head . I am having some issues with my head gasket. It has gone on me 3 times this year.

 

First time it appeared the original head gasket decided to give up which is understandable. So I had the head recoed and installed a mild cam. I had my brother in law who is a 3rd apprentice mechanic help me put everything together.

 

Second time. I probably travelled 150km before I went to start it and it had hydro lock. I inlisted my dad to help this time who is a mechanic of 40 years. I had the head re tested and it came back as good. So with a new head gasket we put it back together and away it went.

 

Third time. I at least got a bit of street driving and a couple of sprint days out of it. But now it is using water. There is water and oil (by the looks of it ) coming out around the exhaust manifold and even water has dripped out of where the headers attach to the exhaust. My catch can is also filling with water.

Just after some recommendations on what I should do next.

Could it be the block has failed somewhere.

I just don't want to replace the gasket and have a failure again.

Thanks.

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Hi. Thanks. We didn't retention the head. My old man had done a lot of these over the years and he didn't mention anything about re tensioning. The car does seem to drive as normal until it heats up. I get about 3 laps of the track down here and then it starts to play up and loose acceleration.

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The first time the head gasket went it was leaking out the back of the block. The second time it was leaking around 3 or 4 cylinder.

The corrosion in the head wasn't great but it tested fine after the reco. I had the water pump off the first time we did the head. Little to no corrosion.

Thanks Mick.

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The suspicious thing here is loosing power at the track which is likely water in the combustion. When it looses power like you mentioned at the track, stop and pull the plugs. Check for a really clean or wet plug and that will be the cylinder with a leak. One likely culprit might be the inlet manifold gasket leaking water into the inlet port. I am assuming here that when you say they tested the head, they tested flatness and

porosity. Also most torque wrenches are way out so it might be worth using another one.

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Hi. No compression test or leak down test done. We didn't think it was necessary to resurface the block as it was originally just an old head gasket giving up. I will try to do a leak down test over the next few days.

This last time also there is moisture in the oil cap but I did an oil change on the weekend. There was no sign of water in the oil and after a few drives the new oil isn't milky either.

Thanks for the help and suggestions. Hopefully I can get it sorted out.

There are signs of water/oil coming out around around the exhaust gasket.

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