Hello All
I seem to have blown the head gasket on my 1970 MGBGT
I had some starting problems on Saturday and when cleaning the plugs
noticed that No.1 was oiled - For a while now I've been getting a
small amount of white smoke when idling (but not under load) so I
assumed I was burning oil and was pondering whether this was worn
valve guides or piston rings
Last night I was driving back through the wilds of Essex when the
water temp started climbing rapidly (it was a very un-springlike cold
night) I was starting to look out for a convenient place to stop and
investigate when I suddenly got vast clouds of white smoke from the
exhaust so I stopped where I was
The dipstick showed what looked like water in the oil so it looks like
the head gasket has gone (if nothing worse?)
I'll take the head off next weekend for a proper look
Is the gasket blowing something that just happens or should I be
looking for some underlying cause?
One thing that occurs to me is that this is the first run since
replacing the radiator pressure cap - the original had a big chunk
missing from the seal and as I was getting through a lot of water I
assumed that it was probably slowly bleeding out all the time - Is
it possible that upping the cooling system to the correct pressure
could have pushed an existing weakness to the point of failure?
TIA for any thoughts
David
MG photos at:
http://www.mds.qmw.ac.uk/csd/staff/david-mg.html
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