[TR] Opinions

[Randall]

Bill,

>From what I have heard, both the solid copper and steel headgaskets are more
difficult to get to seal than the original copper-clad composition one.

I had problems very similar to yours with my TR3A, which I eventually traced
to the liner protrusion being too low, only on one side!  Of course, I was
only checking on the other side, where it was in range.

As a "quick fix", I found some .020" 'half hard' bare copper wire and
soldered a ring of it to a composition gasket around each cylinder.  At the
time, this seemed preferable to having the block re-machined or replaced.
While I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to others, it worked out very well
for me.  The modified gasket was still holding just fine some 10 years later
when the car got wrecked.

I've heard that super glue works as well as solder, but have not tested that
theory myself.  I didn't lay a continuous bead of solder, just tacked the
wire at 6 or 8 places to ensure it remained in position until the head was
clamped down.  The cut ends were overlapped a small amount, and embedded in
the same blob of solder.

-- Randall