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Off with your head!

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70herald

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Well for what must be the third or fourth time in 4 years, I pulled the head off of the Herald today. Not real happy either.

It seems that there has been a very small water leak into the cylinders and now in a few locations I have light rust lines around the cylinder. Fortunately I when I rub my finger over the lines there is no sign of a notch in my nice new cylinder walls. Turning the engine over a few times should get rid of this all together.

The head also needs a bit of work. It looks like the valves are slightly leaking but the machine shop will check it out tomorrow.

Oh well this will be an opportunity to replace a damaged exhaust manifold and solve a few other problems.
 
Yisrael - do you think this is related to that overheating problem that concerned you awhile back?

overheating topic

I think one of the ideas was a head leak (crack?) that "overheated" the coolant in the water jacket.

Tom
 
I think that the biggest part of the overheating issue is that the radiator isn't up to the job, but this certainly isn't helping.

What I did discover this week (and pushed me to pull the head) was that one of the cylinders was running lean while the others which were all to rich. I tightened the intake manifold which solved the mixture problem, but the heating issue became worse. On the other hand with a proper mixture I no longer had a hesitation problem.

I am hoping that with it all back together again the heating issue will also go away, but realistically, I think that I need to buy a new radiator.
 
Pulling the head four times in four years is definitely frustrating. Be thankful this isn't the Buick Straight Eight Forum.
Good luck in finding your problem. Hope it doesn't have to come off again while the car is in your possession.
 
70herald said:
I am hoping that with it all back together again the heating issue will also go away, but realistically, I think that I need to buy a new radiator.
Click to expand...

When I had one of my radiators rebuild the shop said that modern construction of the core would improve its cooling capability by 30% or more compared to the original materials.

I don't have an independent way of verifying that, but a new double core rebuild might make a nice difference.
 
Just talked to the machine shop, I need new valves and guides also. Probably should have replaced them when I had it apart last time, but the machine shop told me they looked alright.

As for the Radiator, Triumph in a major burst of cheapness, decided to install a smaller radiator on the Heralds and Spitfires exactly at the same time as they were enlarging the engine. Of course I have the smaller rad. I am looking for a rebuildable large radiator around here, otherwise I will work something else out.
 
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