[TR] Fw: TR3A Blown Head Gasket (Again)

Alex ambritts at bellsouth.net
Fri Jul 1 15:33:36 MDT 2011


I contacted a friend of mine who was an owner of Cometic. They are a gasket 
manufacturer You can find their site at www.cometic.com. I asked him if he 
had any thoughts that could help Terry. Here's his response below. NFI.
Alex Manzo
59TR3A
PS..BTW, this guy is a big LBC guy.


Subject: RE: [TR] TR3A Blown Head Gasket (Again)


> Some thoughts:
>
> Checking head/block for warpage and deep scratches or pitting
> is a good idea. No gasket will seal with those issues.
>
> Can't tell looking on line if the "stock" gasket is a copper
> sandwich or solid copper. If he is using solid copper it needs
> to be annealed till its very soft-soft enough if you pick it up
> from one end it will bend just with gravity.
>
> Other than the "stock" type gasket I found a couple composite
> (asbestos type) gaskets and a MLS (multilayer steel) on line.
> MLS head gaskets are very strong but require a very smooth
> finish or they will not seal. Finish should be at least a
> 25 Ra.  The composite gaskets actually like a relatively rough
> surface finish-the rough finish will actually bite into the
> composite material.
>
> There are several types of o-ring gaskets although I could not
> find one for a TR3. Fel-pro use to make a gasket with a steel o-ring
> inside the steel fire ring around each bore. They were used right
> out of the box without needing to machine receiver grooves in the
> head or block. The other type of oring gasket uses a solid copper
> gasket with stainless orings around each bore. The heads or block
> need to have a receiver groove machined around each bore for the
> s/s oring to fit into with a max. protrusion of the oring when
> sitting in the groove of .005". When the head is clamped onto
> the block the s/s rings bite into the copper gasket.
>
> With all this being said unless he has jacked up his compression
> over 10:1 I would use one of the available composite gaskets.
> Found one yesterday online for over $250 but found others for
> much less. Two sites englishparts.com and scparts.co.uk look
> like they are selling the Cometic gasket which can be found
> at cometic.com
>
> Cometic concentrates on their MLS gaskets but still make composite
> gaskets but there are better ones out there. Cometic does not apply
> any sealant coatings on their composites and the coating definitely
> helps sealing the oil and/or water passages.
>
> Well I rambled on long enough hope this helps some.
>
>
>
>
> >
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <terryrs at comcast.net>
> To: <triumphs at autox.team.net>
> Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2011 2:30 PM
> Subject: [TR] TR3A Blown Head Gasket (Again)
>
>
>> Blew the head gasket on my 3 again.  Last time was at the end of last
>> year's driving season, so really only have a thousand miles on the
>> replacement.
>>
>> This time I plan to take the head in to the machine shop to have it
>> checked for warpage and cracks.
>>
>> Also, checking archives I came across the thread about (Marly?) who sells
>> head gaskets with an o-ring added, that Randall mentioned solved his head
>> gasket problems (until his car was wrecked a couple of years ago).
>>
>> Is Marly still around, and anybody have his address or one to find a
>> similar head gasket?
>>
>> Terry Smith, '59 TR3A
>> New Hampshire


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