The V8 Owners Forum -

Has anyone else had this problem?







Done a full rebuild on the engine,fitted composite head gaskets,pumped oil round the engine by driving up the oil pump,fitted the engine and next day oil appeared at the head joint on both heads.
Took the heads back off and found oil covering both sides of the gasket on both heads.
Measured the thickness of the gasket at the metal sealing rings for the cylinders and found it greater than the composite gasket material even after it had been compressed.





It would seem then that the head can not compress the composite part of the gasket enough to seal the oil passage from the block to the head.
Ive measured the bolt depths,dowel pin clearance even compression tested it before I took it apart,alls fine.
The engine was fine before the rebuild so it all points to the gaskets.

Been in touch with the supplier,very helpful and has agreed to send new gaskets (Elring brand this time) but can not explain why they failed as they sell loads with no problems,apparently.

Have I missed some thing? Am I alone with this issue?

I do know that I will be putting some sealant around the oil feed hole this time.

My first query would be, head bolt torque values? Check the torque wrench.

Did you clean out the block holes before assembly, was there oil in these? has the heads and block been possibly over skimmed and the bolts bottoming out before compression of the gasket starts ?

JSF55 wrote:Did you clean out the block holes before assembly, was there oil in these? has the heads and block been possibly over skimmed and the bolts bottoming out before compression of the gasket starts ?

Block was hot chemically cleaned,no skimming needed,all bolts screw further in to the block than required.

Should there not be sealing rings round the oil feeds on those gaskets ?

I just got to say they are some moody looking head gaskets you got there

JSF55 wrote:Should there not be sealing rings round the oil feeds on those gaskets ?

You would of thought so,even the tin gaskets have a raised area around the feed hole.

SimpleSimon wrote:I just got to say they are some moody looking head gaskets you got there

Well moody,but apparently the supplier has had no issues with them.
These were not even the cheap ones so god knows what there like!!

When I use a composite gasket on an RV8, I never tighten the 4 outer bolts but just nip them up. Over tightening these 4 bolts can tilt the heads and take pressure off the oil feed area.

Even with tin gaskets never had a problem with oil leaks there even when the outer row of bolts was the norm.

I've had this problem as well so I put a smudge of sealant around the oil and water gallery holes.

Chris.

DaveEFI wrote:Even with tin gaskets never had a problem with oil leaks there even when the outer row of bolts was the norm.

I would say that a tin gasket is less likely to squash unevenly and therefore less likely to cause the head to tilt towards the outer row of bolts.

The tin gaskets did have the compressible corrugations around the oil holes. The composite gaskets I had didn't have anything.....

Chris.

An old codger that probably served as mechanic on Noah's Ark told me to paint the gasket on both sides with Indian Head Shellac before fitting it.

ChrisJC wrote:The tin gaskets did have the compressible corrugations around the oil holes. The composite gaskets I had didn't have anything.....

Chris.

The Elring gaskets do



Then again the entire gasket is far better quality - you get what you pay for ( sometimes)