V8 manifold gasket, cyl head ?

[TeGriffic]

Relating to a 4.3 V8 (Griff) I have a blowing exhaust gasket at the cylinder head (cylinder 1). Initially I cried myself to sleep thinking camshaft but it is now clear that the gasket has blown out around a very clear hole / rip in the gasket. I suspect the bolts have a tendency to loosen and that this in turn has allowed the gasket to be ripped and blown out by the exhaust pressure.

Now, the noise is severe, and I’m concerned that there may have been erosion damage – like to the cylinder head. Assuming a worse case, and the cylinder head needs to be remachined, can anyone – preferably from experience, give me an idea of how much this is going to hurt in the pounds sterling department.

I’d be interested in any advice or comment, including confirmation that crying myself to sleep is still in order.

Thanks.


>>> Edited by TeGriffic on Monday 12th April 01:58

[shpub]

All depends.. but I would guess £700. May be a lot less but equally when the remove the heads, you may find cam trouble anyway. Worth checking rather than wait and have to repeat the work all over again.

Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk

[drum4it2]

sorry to hear that Shawn... did it happen at the meet yesterday? Good luck..

[anonymous-user]

I must admit, that it did sound a little clattery at the February meet.

If you listen to the A130 Convoy video you can hear it as you go past.

Mine is a little tappety, don't know whether it should be like it, whether I have a slight exhaust manifold leak, or a cam on its way out.

It's not too intrusive at the moment though.

Lee

[daftlad]

Its unlikely you've done much more damage than the gasket but worst case I would expect to be a damaged exhaust valve. The wedge cars, which utilised a different manifold configurartion to the later V8 cars, suffered from exhaust gasket failure due to difficulty in lining the manifold flanges up correctly with the head. The trick was to install two gaskets per port.

[TeGriffic]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yep, I noticed it on the video. You can't hear it so much in the car. That would have been about the time I noticed it. Had a close look thie morning and I'm pretty sure the bolts have loosened a tad and allowed the gasket to be blown out. I can't see any wear on the faces from the outside but that's no guarantee of course. Oh well, in the repair shop and fingers crossed.

>> Edited by TeGriffic on Monday 12th April 18:09