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As many of you know I have been having overheating problems for several months now. After exhaustive elimination (and replacement) of all other possibilities we finally bit the bullet and decided it was the headgasket.
The car is turbocharged and runs at 22psi. It is a stock block with 3mm Inline Pro headgasket and new OEM head bolts tightened as per the instructions but not retightened.
As a bit of background, the car had undergone a lithium test (tests for carbon monoxide in the coolant) and a cooling system pressure test. It passed both.
But after replacing the radiator cap, thermostat, radiator, hoses and disassembling the water pump along with repetitive bleeding after each process it became apparent that the problem was more sinister.
Today we took the head off. I say that in one line but it's actually a fairly big job.
Here's what we found:
It appears the headgasket has failed between the cylinders with a small leak to the cooling jacket.
I have been let down by a parts supplier but will fabricate a new head gasket from a Cometic 0.7mm headgasket and the sandwich piece of my 3mm headgasket.
the 3 headgaskets that i have changed and the few that i have helped on all look similar to that. However, on mine, there wasn't as much carbon/gasket material left on the head and block. The gasket had the same wear marks though. After my next gasket blows i think i am going to try ARP's and a more thorough torque testing (every 1k miles etc...) Or ditch the 3mm headgasket all together.
Are you going to reuse stock studs or try something different?
I think the thing to do when installing a multi layer headgasket is to use the copper
spray on all layers. When I installed my 2mm Cometic hg I drilled out the rivets and took the gasket apart. I cleaned some dirt out of my new gasket
and then sprayed both sides of each layer of the gasket before installing them one at a time. I have been running this setup at 16-20 psi for about 5k miles, with no problems. I reused my head studs and torqued 1/8 turn past spec. I have not retorqued my head studs yet.
AusS2000 how muany miles are on that gasket? If these things only blow every 20k or so I could care less. It takes me about 5 years to put 20k on my car.
05-01-2009, 10:04 PM
Blown 3mm head gasket
