Cunning engine mod

[Nick Webster]

I don't know why I didn't think of this before.. Just turned up while dismantling anengine is this gasket support made from the screw ring of a dashboard switch. Obviously there are huge benefits because the chrome finish has protected it from corrosion. The rest of the support appears to be a big pile of washers with no ability to prevent the liner turning. On the plus side, the gasket hadn't blown.

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Nick

[Forumadmin]

I make a plate out of stainless that fits the whole area between the two liners. I have seen so many gaskets that had ripped themselves out from the steel combustion sealing rings in many old engines I dismantled

[David Morris]

Hi Nick, I think you are absolutely right. The standard Jowett fitting, in aluminium, tries to do two things. One, to support the haed gasket and secondly, to prevent the liners moving. Like you, I think the most important function here is to provide support to the head gasket. I suggest the chances of the liners moving, when torqued up with the head, are really remote. Just don't exceed the 35lbs ft on the head bolts, if you want to avoid the block cracking and don't even try and get the original 0.015" projection on the liner faces. 0.006" is plenty. The sound of a block cracking is not nice! I know, I've had it happen! ( The solution we adopted was to get the complete assembled and sadly cracked block welded, as the crack was visable externally and the engine ran well for thousands of miles, even though it was, by now, not strictly horizontal! )

All the best, David