Taking the head off my MGB as the gasket was blowing. A few pics attached. If you look at the gasket you can see where the blow was next to no. 3 cylinder. The block's mainly cleaned up now, the head about half done. Better get a new gasket bought tomorrow - didn't think it was gonna go this quick!

The last person to install the head used a lot of Red Hermetite to put it on with - looks like that might have been the cause. Next gasket will be going on dry, as head gaskets are meant to be We shall see if this works better...

That looks a bit too technical for me Nick

What's Red Hermetite? I think we put some black Hermetite on our metal gate to protect it from the elements - you know, does exactly what it says on the tin etc (hic had too much cider tonight methinks!)

Hermetite - gasket compound beloved of bodgers (the red stuff all over the cylinder head in the pic).

Hammerite - rust covering paint beloved of bodgers (and anybody with a rusty old car).

HTH

That looks a bit too technical for me Nick

What's Red Hermetite? I think we put some black Hermetite on our metal gate to protect it from the elements - you know' date=' does exactly what it says on the tin etc (hic had too much cider tonight methinks!)[/quote']

Your not wrong.

I hope you did not do any of the work on your car yourself Dave!!!

Always wanted to do something like that, i.e. take a cylinder head off, but worried I probably couldn't get it back together and running again.

I can't see the blow you mention in no.3, any chance of putting a circle round it?

I have a 1.5 Spitfire, are these engines similar?

Edited just for you.

Spit engine should be pretty similar, yes. Main things with removing heads are:

Remember where everything goes and don't muddle things up.

Keep everything as clean as you can, don't let stuff fall down holes that isn't meant to.

Use new gaskets, and don't mess about with gasket compounds unless you really really have to.

Cool, thanks for that, wouldn't this have caused a loss of compression on 2 and 3? Or would that have soon occured if you'd left it?

Martin

Probably already did, albeit slight.