Club 80-90 Forums

Got a bit of a drip from my head seals on both sides, had to top up coolant last week coming home from osmotherly( 10 minutes after leaving Meggles house )
Is it worth re torquing the heads or am I asking for the seal to go completely or do you rekon k seal is worth a try. Seams to be a lot of conflicting reports about both, oh and after everything I've read about removing the heads I'm loath to try it ( even after watching the easy peasy method on YouTube )
Thoughts please.

Re-torquing is definitely a big no-no. The seal is just soft rubber type material and is only modesty compressed between the two metal surfaces. The main "torque" is taken by the actual "O" shaped metal gasket at the top of the liner, mating onto the actual head. Also, there is the ever present danger when doing anything to the head studs, that one (or more) of them will break.


K-Seal is worth a try, though many would say it is a bodge too far. It worked on mine for a few years though
Have you seen my thread on getting this job done by a garage ? ( LINK ).

Dazco wrote:and after everything I've read about removing the heads I'm loath to try it ( even after watching the easy peasy method on YouTube )

Easy peasy = no it isn't as easy as he makes it look. Read what folks in my thread think about not removing the pistons and liners to replace the lower "O" ring. It is quite a job and can be fraught with disasters (though some on here have done it successfully). The worst thing is, going to all that trouble, and then, on firing it up, finding that summat is far from right. In my case I must have got summat wrong with that lower liner "O" ring, and the water and oil just mixed up at a hell of a rate To say I was disappointment is an understatement !

I will likely be letting Elite do mine, soon after Bustypes. Mine is only a very slight drip, but this time K-Seal didn't work. Annoying as the engine is otherwise very good.

Hiya ghost , I've been watching your thread about letting elite do the job and read about you using k seal. I have some cam knock at tick over so I'm not expecting the engine to last for years and years so think ill give k seal a crack .
I used the term easy peasy very loosely as he does make it look easy but there again anyone that has done a job many times will have "the knack".
Did you have any issues after using k seal as I've read that it tends to bung every thing up .
Cheers

No issues after using it. Apparently K-Seal is a bit different in the way it works than other sealers. I didn't like using it though as I am aware of the small bore "bleed rail" pipe and it's "T" pieces that can get blocked up. That was what started all my woes originally (7 years ago) when one of the "T" pieces blocked up (the one that takes water from the left hand head) (not K-seal related).

Yes, i would concurr . The heads leaked on my van when bought it and k-seal did the job for a couple of years. Obviously the gaskets are not getting any better with time and will eventually fail normally because they are rotten. The k-seal 'magic potion' works whilst being held in suspension in the water and does not appear to clog anything up. My rad and engine internals still looked fine when i did my engine conversion
.

Ok I'll look into getting some and trying it . Thanks