Spitfire overheating

[Jmulloy]

My friend has a fully restored Spitfire with a rebuilt engine and is having some overheating issues. We put a new 160deg thermostat in and burped the radiator yesterday. Took it for a test drive and it seem to run at normal operating temps until he ran the rpms up to 4500. Then it melted down and when we came off the highway we could smell coolant fumes coming out of the tailpipe.

Is the head gasket blown?

John

 

[Deleted member 8987]

or a crack opening up under heat and high combustion pressures.
Comp test, maybe a leakdown, what does the oil look like? Milkshake?

 

[Andrew Mace]

My friend has a fully restored Spitfire with a rebuilt engine and is having some overheating issues. We put a new 160deg thermostat in and burped the radiator yesterday. Took it for a test drive and it seem to run at normal operating temps until he ran the rpms up to 4500. Then it melted down and when we came off the highway we could smell coolant fumes coming out of the tailpipe.

Is the head gasket blown?

I'd say there's a very good chance that's exactly what happened. How long ago was the engine rebuilt, and was the head gasket ever re-torqued? (And is it the correct gasket? Wouldn't be the first time someone made that mistake.)