The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → Head Gaskets
You think it would be a good idea to go ahead and change it before a race???
Head Gaskets... the scourge of LeMon's.....
Oil on the gasket - there's your problem!
and here I am thinking it was the newspaper block they were using it in...
hehehehe
A more serious response about a head gasket.
They usually blow as a result of overheating or something.
If they are sealing well and working. They tend to stay that way unless something like overheating happens.
Of course engine gasket sets are pretty cheap insurance and I recommend that along with re-torquing and Loctiting important stuff.
A more serious response about a head gasket.
They usually blow as a result of overheating or something.
If they are sealing well and working. They tend to stay that way unless something like overheating happens.
Of course engine gasket sets are pretty cheap insurance and I recommend that along with re-torquing and Loctiting important stuff.
Heat-cycling is what will really kill a head gasket (especially on cars with aluminum heads) and heat cycling happens a lot in a race especially if you're running without a thermostat. (I am speaking from my expansive race experience here, which is one Lemons race in October, so your mileage may vary. But I owned a lot of old Celicas and water-cooled VWs, and learned the hard way about head gaskets.) If the engine is running fine, making sure the cooling system is top-notch will pay off a lot more than worrying about the head gasket.
also, just make sure you bring a spare. there are a lot of things you can jury-rig together on a car to get you through the end of the race (one of our guys -- RobL -- made another team a clutch disk out of 1/8" steel and brake pads), but a head gasket is not one of them.
That took one of the preludes out, they lost a head gasket and nobody nearby had one in stock i guess.
Personally i would have driven to sacto and banged on the napa warehouse till someone sold me one, but that's just me.
Having a perfect cooling system goes a long way towards preventing head gasket issues, it's the key for 70's accords and toyota 22r motors. Neither of 'em tolerates even a minor overheat cycle without blowing a head gasket. I suspect that 220*f would do it.
Detonation will kill 'em too, just ask the Saab guys at Thill. Course that was the head, but whatever.
We blew our head gasket on the Z.
I think detention but the hurting on it and the ensuing heat finished it off.
We bring spares but didn't change it since the head really should have been machined in the first place.
It is a good idea to bring a spare to the race. If you don't use it, you can always return it.
A good cooling system is a HUGE asset in Lemons.
Even new or good used parts don't always hold up. Turns out we were sucking our lower radiator hose pretty flat. MR2s water pumps seem to cavitation at high RPM.
So sometimes you need to look for alternate solutions cause these cars ain't made for what we are doing and especially for the length of time we try to run them.
Looks fine to me. Run it!
We blew our head gasket on the Z.
I think detention but the hurting on it and the ensuing heat finished it off.
i think the fact that it was on a Z finished it off.
classic "milkshake" oil with that type of gasket!!
Pff, headgaskets...
Just use duct-tape and call it a day
I'm really interested in seeing a Lemons team fashion a head gasket out of a sandwich of chopped up pop cans, jbweld, and newspapers. hell, you might get IOE on an otherwise decent car if you manage to run the whole race with that concoction.
I think a dozen cars blew head gaskets at CMP in the fall. It seemed to be the theme of the race. We will always have a spare in the future.
Fiat was down on power last 1/3rd of the day on Sunday at Thill...
Post race tear-down revealed this as the likely the culprit.
As you can see, this was a relatively new gasket (replaced before Buttonwillow in August). We lost the gasket in the same place at Thunderhill back in 07, and there's a significant burn mark on the block between 2-3 cylinders, which is just going to eat the next gasket.
We also filled the catch-can with sump oil, meaning we were blowing some serious pressure past the rings into the crankcase. Maybe a broken ring or piston skirt. Once we pull the bottom end apart, we may find this block is toast.
Oh, and our exhaust manifold is cracked in about 4 places.
And our front rotors are warped.
And our oil-can scoop is broken.
Good times.
Why not dry deck the head and eliminate the head gasket all together? Some super fine lapping paste and about 4 hours later...
--Spank
Why not dry deck the head and eliminate the head gasket all together? Some super fine lapping paste and about 4 hours later...
--Spank
Sounds like fun! Any links to writeup on the procedure? (i'm serious! - but bores may be hosed due to piston failure - we've got a spare block but that's starting over)
We could always MacGuyver some Roamex, pull the copper wires out, cut reliefs with a dremel and ring our own block! 
There are probably a few different ways of doing it, but the way I know of involves eliminating the gasket, plugging the coolant passages, and tapping into a water jacket on the block and on the head and using an external pipe for coolant to flow from one to the other...
Never done it myself. Thought about it, though. May get to it one day.
wet sanding then RTV + CPU cooling paste?
what could possibly go wrong? 
We could always MacGuyver some Roamex, pull the copper wires out, cut reliefs with a dremel and ring our own block!
I know of one rotary engine builder who uses 18 gauge wire in place of the coolant seals between the housings. I don't see why it wouldn't work on a head (try at YOUR own risk).
It is/was standard procedure on some old Porsche that the HG was basically spraypaint.
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → Head Gaskets