weeping gasket, should I join it?

[FeelTheNoise]

Saw a little patch of coolant under the car the other day, thought it might be like my old alfa that would dump a little out the header tank overflow when hot. Unfortuntely a week later and the little puddle has contined to drip and create a little stream towards the back of the garage!

I thought, it's not so bad, must be the metal pipes under the front cover - pre-purchase inspection warned they would need replacing soon.
Had a look and the pipes looked pretty rough, but that's not where the leak is...

There appears to be coolant weeping out from around one of the studs holding the offside head on. There's no emulsified oil on the dip stick or filler cap and the car runs fine, so looks like no internal damage yet. Question is, is it still going to cost a fortune in labour to whip off the throttle body assembly & head, fit the gasket and re-assemble?

Phil

[Tyre Smoke]

Yes.

[350Matt]

Or do it yourself, Can it be done in situ? or does the engine have to come out?

Matt

[neilus]

350Matt said:

does the engine have to come out?

Unfortunately, yes.

Had a similar problem myself last year - as I recall the biggest part of the cost is to take out and then replace the engine.

Neil.

[BLUETHUNDER]

Why does the engine need to come out just to get to the heads.??

[neilus]

BLUETHUNDER said:

Why does the engine need to come out just to get to the heads.??

Don't know, but I guess it's because the engine is mounted so far back that you cannot get to all the bolts with the engine in situ. Waits to be corrected

Neil.

[BLUETHUNDER]

neilus said:

BLUETHUNDER said:

Why does the engine need to come out just to get to the heads.??

Don't know, but I guess it's because the engine is mounted so far back that you cannot get to all the bolts with the engine in situ. Waits to be corrected

Neil.

Well i,ve the airboxes off numerous times to get to stuff.And the heads look pretty accesible to me.

[longbow]

No, its mainly because the front timing cover needs to come off as it hides some of the head bolts! And in order to get the cover off, and over the crank nose the engine needs to come out as there isn't enough clearance to the forward chassis tubes. Annoying, I know.......

Edited by longbow on Sunday 4th November 17:28

[BLUETHUNDER]

longbow said:

No, its mainly because the front timing cover needs to come off as it hides some of the head bolts! And in order to get the cover off, and over the crank nose the engine needs to come out as there isn't enough clearance to the forward chassis tubes. Annoying, I know.......

Edited by longbow on Sunday 4th November 17:28

Well there is the explanation.And Windsor should know,as he re-built his engine himself.

[FeelTheNoise]

longbow said:

No, its mainly because the front timing cover needs to come off as it hides some of the head bolts! And in order to get the cover off, and over the crank nose the engine needs to come out as there isn't enough clearance to the forward chassis tubes. Annoying, I know.......

Thanks for the replies...well, sort of! Not what I wanted to hear, I thought it might be possible in situ but I'd forgotten about the timing cover. Although I'm quite happy to replace peripherals I normally steer clear of opening the engine so I guess I better go have chat with the garage.

[350Matt]

Still once its apart you might as well do a bit of porting, a new set of rings, shells and timing chain and she'll be good as new!

Matt

[jbvipercerb]

This is maybe looking too much on the bright side, but mine was just slightly weeping from the drivers side front outer stud (not dripping as yours) and I unscrewed the dome nut covered the thread and head surface with silicone, tightened the nut back up and its been perfect ever since! Now I've said that!!!!
Maybe worth a try?

[FeelTheNoise]

jbvipercerb said:

This is maybe looking too much on the bright side, but mine was just slightly weeping from the drivers side front outer stud (not dripping as yours) and I unscrewed the dome nut covered the thread and head surface with silicone, tightened the nut back up and its been perfect ever since! Now I've said that!!!!
Maybe worth a try?

Well anything is worth a try, but it sounds like the sort of repair that would require constant checking to make sure nothing else was going pear-shaped? Anyway, I'm going to have another go at pin-pointing the leak and hope I was mistaken the first time - before toodling off to the garage for a pressure test.

[longbow]

The leak might well not mean the cylinder head gasket is leaking - bear with me.........

The large, inner studs that torque the heads down actually sit in the coolant inside the engine block. As the AJP uses wet liners, there is a large bath of coolant around all of the liners, and the studs screw into the block inside this coolant bath. So in theory the coolant can freely travel up the stud inside the holes machined in the heads, right up to the thread where the large nuts torque down. It may simply be the case that the nut has lost its torque - retorquing it may solve the problem. The AJP is an unusual engine, if the headgasket(s) went it would nearly always cause white smoke from the exhaust on that bank, and also pressurise the coolant system creating air pockets and overheating.

Have a look ath this pic, imagine the heads torqued down and you should be able to see what I'm getting at! I forget the torque figure off the top of my head, but its about 60lbft. Infact, you can see where the studs are discoloured from being immersed in coolant over time. The crucial part the head gaskets need to seal is ontop of the liners - a leak on the outside of the block is less critical to a certain extent.

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/256431177006117098...

[FeelTheNoise]

Makes sense, I'll bear that in mind. Thanks.

Took the liberty of viewing your other pictures - excellent job, almost seems a shame to put the body back on!