TR2/3/3A copper gasket sealer and push rods

Well I got the cylinder head on last night and used some of that spray copper gasket sealer; I sure hope it does more good than harm because that stuff is sticky and stringy, and I have never treated a head gasket before. I knew a guy who always sprayed them with silver spray paint, but I would put them on dry. But, then this last motor I did mixed, so I tried to play it a little safer this time. My take on it is that these old motors have been apart too many times, so I used some insurance, hope it works.
Anyways got looking at the push rods closer and see that they are the 5/16 and not 3/8. I have always used the 3/8 and Moss maintains the 5/16 are problematic. Not sure if that is true or not, but I prefer the beefier stuff, so what do people think are those 5/16 that weak.

My can says to use multiple coats and let them dry (overnight) before installing. Was your different? Going on wet would just smear. Same for paint.

My TR2 motor has the smaller pushrods, after more than 100k miles. That tells me they can't be too problematic, or they would have been replaced at some point in 60 years. I plan to reinstall them. If I were going to use larger springs or run the car very hard, I would go with the larger rods...but I don't. I may have some of the larger rods if you are concerned, though.

I think the gasket sealant will improve the seal. It will likely make cleanup harder next time the head comes off, though.

That is what I was thinking too. The can says put it on tacky after 2 minutes and I did and yeh I bet the surface is going to nasty, but what the heck the top of the engine had some minor blemishes and it should fill those in. The head was shaved down some, but had some pitting right over the pistons where no gasket would be anyway. I tried to find a point when the smaller push rods where changed over, but could not. I am thinking around 1959. I sent an email to Marv to see if he had some 3/8 and now after what John said I will clean up the 5/16 and see, and if Marv has some that will be cool also.
I appreciate guys like Marv that keep an inventory of parts moving and you seem to have good stash too. There used to be 2 brothers in Southern Cal that had a junkyard of stuff, I think Roth brothers, but I think they went out of business. Since Berry Nelson moved out of the Seattle area, there really is not anybody close that deals is original old stuff like I prefer.
There used to be this guy back in the early 70s in the Seattle area named Sebastian that had this large private collection of Austin Healey’s wrecked and not. Hopefully, he is on the AH forum. Anyway, I would stop by once and a while with a friend just to hang out plus even back then he had lift. In today’s world, his stuff would worth a million, I guess. Back then, it was a little house full car parts and a muddy lot out back full of Healeys

My opinion, if you aren't driving the engine hard and don't care about a little lost power, the thinner pushrods are fine. But I'll always remember Ken Gillander's comment that they "looked like dancing spaghetti" under a strobe on the dyno. It won't take much of that to cause one to break.

My experience with head gaskets has been that, if everything is right, no sealer is needed. And if something is substantially wrong, then no sealer will help. You have to get it right.

On two engines in a row now, the liner protrusion has been too low. Took me years of living with leaking head gaskets to think to measure on both sides! D'oh! The right solution of course is to have the block machined to make the deck perpendicular to the liner bores; but I've been using circles of copper wire added to the head gasket instead, which has worked great for more years than I care to think about:



Another problem that sometimes crops up is studs with distorted threads. To check, clean the threads up (without running a die over them) and spin a new nut down the length of the threads. If it binds about 2/3 down, the threads are distorted and the stud must be discarded.

I also like to lightly rub a flat machinist's file over the block surface, to pick up any high spots. I've not seen any on the block, but I almost always find some the first time in places like the manifold side of the head.

TR3driver said:

I also like to lightly rub a flat machinist's file over the block surface, to pick up any high spots. I've not seen any on the block, but I almost always find some the first time in places like the manifold side of the head.

Click to expand...

Me 2.

What, a strobe light makes everything look like dancing spaghetti. Now a black light and a strobe light can make things dance even with your eyes closed.

Interesting...I don't think the rods are actually bending under the strobe, or they would not last long at all. As they push, the angle on the rods changes with the arc of the rocker arm. I bet the strobe catches the angular change and gives the illusion of bending. Now I'm going to have to play with my timing light and the pushrods!

Now we are talking, illusions. Something I can finally understand after being high school in the sixties

I think you're missing the point. The strobe was synchonized to engine rotation (like a timing light) so the pushrods should have been in the same position at each flash. And yes, they were bending that far. No doubt that was with a racing cam and over factory redline, so the stresses would be less with a factory cam and more moderate rpm.

Pretty much everything inside a car engine flexes a little. Kas Kastner once wrote of finding over 5/8" deflection on a TR6 flywheel, due to the crankshaft whipping around. Not an illusion, fact.

I am with Randall here. I have a TR2 engine in my TR3A and I don't drive her hard at all yet went with the 3/8 pushrods when I found two of the 5/16 pushrods chewed up and in pieces on the top of my cylinder head.