[TR] Spitfire head gasket

[Roger Elliott]

Hi All,

I have a 1980 Spitfire, the head has been rebuilt twice in the last 
2,500 miles.  (Shop claims something happened between first and second 
rebuild, so not their fault)

Anyway, I have taken it for a few drives ~60  miles at a time and all 
seemed good, so we were going to take it on a bit longer drive.

35 miles from home, the temp gauge is pegged, I put in lots of water - 
maybe not quite a half gallon.  Started up to try to drive back home, 
there was lots of white smoke from the exhaust.  I don't think it was 
smoking much if at all before it overheated as I was kind of keeping an 
eye on the car behind us and did not see smoke.

I got 3 miles and decided to call a tow truck.  It was low on water 
again - at least a quart in those 3 miles.

I used a leak down tester - though didn't really do a real leak down 
test - to see if the cylinders were holding air.  All seemed fine except 
4 which was not holding air and I could hear the air coming through the 
radiator water was bubbling.

So, I took the head off expecting the head gasket to be blown or 
something obvious with the head.

Head gasket was fine.  My checks of the head with feeler gauge and 
straight edge indicated it is flat.  I don't see anything wrong with the 
head.

Do I need to have it checked for cracks?  Or what else could be wrong?

Or could it be that the overheating loosened the head enough that water 
got past the gasket?

Thanks,

Roger Elliott