[Mgs] Anti freeze Weep From Head Gasket

[Dodd, Kelvin]

Merle:

This is a bit of a counter point to Paul's good advice.

This weeping is not normal, but it is very typical.

Do you know which head gasket you used? The standard gasket for many
years was silver coated and it tended to have leak problems. The typical
fix was to use an additional glue compound such as "Copper Coat" when
installing the gasket. With this gasket re-torquing may help.

I challenge Paul's comment about the gasket quality. The newer gasket
design supplied by Payen (AE) is almost black in color and incorporates
a resin finish and o ringed water ports. This is not supposed to be
re-torqued, but at this point you don't have a lot to lose. The AE
gasket should not have any additional dressing. This style of gasket is
far superior to any past designs and has been giving very good life.

I've found that the head bolts just in the middle of the right side tend
to need to be retorqued more than any of the others, possibly due to the
block structure, or the effect of the coolant. That would be an
interesting area to examine.

Kelvin Dodd

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mgs-bounces+doddk=mossmotors.com at autox.team.net
> [mailto:mgs-bounces+doddk=mossmotors.com at autox.team.net] On
> Behalf Of Valda and Merl Rosenthal
> Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 8:10 AM
> To: MG List
> Subject: [Mgs] Anti freeze Weep From Head Gasket
>
> I just completed the rebuild of my MGB. I rebuilt the engine
> and re-torqued the head bolts after approximately 300 miles.
> After 2,400 miles, I just noticed a weep of anti freeze
> coming from the head gasket above my spark plugs.  I have the
> following questions:
>
> Is this normal or should I re-torque the head bolts?  Some
> where I thought I read this was normal on an MG.
>
> If I re-torque do I do it hot or cold?
>
> If I re-torque do I loosen all the head bolts and start over
> or do I re-torque from there current torque values?
>
>
> Any guidance would be appreciated.  I have also included some
> pictures of my restoration
>
>
> Merl Rosenthal
>
> 1980 MGB