MGB cylinder head not sealing on recon motor.

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socram, Jan 21, 6:33am
Remember that when the 1800 was first put on the market, they had terrible oil problems but on a full investigation, even though the B series had been around since the 1950's ZA Magnette, somehow or other, the dipstick was wrongly calibrated and engines carried too much oil.Once that was fixed, the oil problems disappeared.

Chebry, just remember that the landcrab was leading the London to Sydney marathon and only lost the win because they stopped to help another competitor.

The Hillman Imp was probably the only Hillman model that ever showed any innovation and sadly, that failed, even though on paper it was a far better car than the Mini.

llortmt, Jan 21, 8:02am
I cant be bothered to read the whole thread but.
You said both the head and block have been resurfaced right!
Everyone's saying check them with a straight edge and that's all fine and dandy however. what if the head or block were not square when machined!
i.e. One or the other was machined at an angle!
It wouldn't be the first time.

supernova2, Jan 21, 10:01am
An angle, as long as the surface is still flat, wont make any difference.At worst the head studs will have to bend which they will do.

I suppose that if the angle was great enough you might get a problem.Easy enough to check the deck height of each pistion side for side and front to back.Any angle will show up.As for the head out with the vernier and check the height from face to rocker cover face - both sides both ends etc.

According to my book the CR had the following options: 8.2, 6.8, 8.4, 9.0, 8.0, 6.9.All had same head gasket.No mention of whether they were different castings or just different machined height.BMC were good at raiding the parts bins to make up variations so anything could have happened.
Torque settings Head nuts (early) 40 (later) 45 to 50 lb.ft, rocker bracket nuts 25 lb.ft.The text of the book only refers to the higher figure (45 to 50) so I guess that is the figure to go for.

Head gasket should be marked Front and Top which puts the copper side uppermost .

Antifreeze 25%.

martin11, Jan 22, 6:23am
These cars have always had head gasket problems from new !

socram, Jan 22, 7:16am
Really!

pebbles61, Jan 22, 7:18am
You must be thinking of MGFs lol

nzoomed, Jan 22, 9:37am
ive never had any head gasket problems with these before, will let you know on our progress this week.

elect70, Jan 23, 3:58am
There is the old engineers trick of bluingthe surfaces to see if they are true . .

upnorth, Jan 23, 6:48am
Time to find the man a TC Marrina Coup

pebbles61, Jan 23, 7:21am
my father-in-law has one of those. Keen to give it a spin one day _b