What you describe is typical. John Twist says to run t thin bead of
sealant on the gasket and/or place a strand of thin copper wire on the
gasket prior to installing it.
...Art
On Sat, 20 Feb 1999, Eric wrote:
> OK, here is a question for all, based on my recent painful and expensive
> little driving experience. Some might remember that I bought my little
> yellow car, my first MG, as a learning experience... I think I may have
> hit another speed bump in my learning curve.
>
> A long, 65mph, two and a half to three hour drive in 95/100F heat...
> check out the engine (especially after losing a lot of oil) and see a
> lot of "seepage" and bubbles along the head gasket on the distributor
> side of the block. I assume that the gasket has gone because this is
> meant to be a "seal"... surely... and I am nowhere near my usual,
> trusted, family MG doctor to ask advice. Nor am I near a computer and
> Internet access to ask you guys.
>
> I have now been informed (from a trusted source) that after such a drive
> this sort of "seepage" is quite understandable and it will simply "seal
> up" again once things cool down and get back to "normal" driving again.
> In fact this source said that he had seen racing MGs that had
> distributor problems because so much water came out past the head gasket
> under such stressed conditions.
>
> Now I will tell you that if I saw this on my Ford I would come to the
> conclusion that the gasket was shot and I wouldn't find many who would
> think otherwise, but my problem was that the mechanic who did the work
> for me did NOT do a compression test before ripping the head off (it was
> too late by the time I dropped in to witness further work being done)
> and I only found this out when I saw his report afterwards.
>
> Any thoughts on this? Was my head gasket going/gone or did I just make
> another payment on this mechanic's Porsche for no good reason?
>
>
> Eric
> '68MGB MkII (resting)
>
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