I was on an icy, unlit, dual carriage way with no hard shoulder and was therefore unable to stop. i slowed to around 40, and tried to keep as steady on the throttle as possible, but it was far from an ideal situation.
by the time i left the dual carriage way, it was only a few hundred yards home, and i gingerly pressed on and arrived safely. on pulling the first 2 ht leads off and finding no difference in the engine's running, my fears were confirmed. head gasket failure between bores.
after a sleepless night, i set to work at around 9.15 sunday morning.
by 9.45, i had the head off and the damage was exposed.[frame]
although no discernible 'dip' in the block, there is a roughness on both the head and block caused by the heat damage. as such, i know i am on borrowed time now with this engine, and it will need stripping and skimming as a matter of urgency.
to make matters worse, i flushed the rad out while it was disconnected, and this has dislodged a piece of debris in the bottom which was plugging a hole. in getting the engine up to temperature so i could retorque it once it had cooled, i topped her up with a further 3 litres of water. i will have to try fetching the radiator out, getting it home and soldering it. if that doesn;t work, i will have to use the radiator supplied with the traveller. i'm just desperate not to let the project be used as a parts car.
For now, i have clamped it all down with a new copper head gasket, and hope it will last me long enough to strip, assess, and get a spare engine ready to go in.
candidates at the moment are either the engine which came with my traveller project (although this has sat for a year without oil, so will at the very least want the ends dropping off and lubing up before i was happy to run it), or the 1098 which lost oil pressure on MOT 2013, and whose bearings are rather noisy. If the crankshaft has survived, i will try dropping that one in with new bearings.
typical that these things always happen when funds are tight.
