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R4 Head Gasket Installation

J

jayar

Enthusiast
Messages
35
Hello,

Not my R4F4 fortunately, but I have had a call from a friend who has an R4 van with 1,108cc engine that blew a head gasket recently. His question - which I do not know the answer to (but anybody who has changed on will) is simple - he has purchased a replacement gasket, and says that one side has (green) sealant and the other is clean - does the side with the sealant face upwards from the block?

Thanks
 
The green sealant goes towards the block. Hope your friend knows what he is doing as head gasket replacement needs to be done properly otherwise it will fail.
 
I had a head gasket go on a old for pop that was over heating and used K seal instead of replacing the gasket it worked for me, might be worth a try and it cost me less than £15 at the time of Ebay.
 
Hello Billy - Ford Pop head gaskets were copper asbestos and K seal (whatever that is) may have helped. During my motor trade years I never used any 'snake oil' or instant remedies to cure what should be done properly. The R4 gasket is made of a composite material and along with the engine's use of wet liners, no instant remedy should ever be used unless you were stuck somewhere and needed to get home.

As an aside, Ford Pop side valve head gaskets were so easy to replace that I could have fitted one by the time you had gone to the shop to buy some instant gunge to fix it.
Steve
 
Well Steve,
I have used it since then on a Nissan Micra with the same results, so perhaps this snake oil does work.
I know already from the messages posted by yourself that you seem to think that most modern cures are all " snake oil" and you are probably right on most occasions but possibly not all of the time, believe it or not some are the real thing, by the way the shop is next door to me!
regards
billy
 
quick cure gaskets

now lads no fighting.
k seal is for rover k series engines they suffer with head trouble due to head bolts being 2ft long when they get hot and stretch head is loose (great design)
the gaskets are tin with a silicone type seal round it, k seal just replaces this silcone for ten minutes while you sell the car. ask anyone who has had an mgf or small rover car etc, ive never tried it in anything else ??
Reg
 
pure banter

Now then reg,
I's just a simply bit of banter as I hope Steve knows as well, if we all lived life too seriously we would be bored stiff, besides I like snake oil it cured my grannies warts
:hug:
 
Hello Billy, I'm not against 'modern cures' but just believe that while they have their place, a proper job should be carried out asap.
The original water loss 'cure' was Barseal - also know as the Dog Turd which did work for a time until the crack in the head or the deterioration in the head gasket got worse and you'd bung another couple of Turds in and cross your fingers. This superseded a couple of eggs in the engine coolant to seal the radiator - I guess that it was rare in the past for head gaskets to fail because one had to have their engine de-coked quite regularly anyway so head gaskets didn't have time to deteriorate. Most engines used to be side valve so it was rare for a head to crack.
I have been at the end of some seriously sarcastic comments on other forums when I said that the Broquet fuel Catalyst works as I had seen the proof. Needless to say I won't ever mention Broquet again in case somebody set's the boys on me.
Steve
 
sawdust

I do remember many years ago an old boy sold a car to the fellow next door to us, it was all right for a few days then the gearbox started whining.
The fellow took it to the local garage who told him the gearbox was full of oily sawdust.
But my Granny still swore by snake oil Steve, especially if it came out of a whisky bottle!
:)
 
By the way Steve I have heard of the Henry Broquet fuel Catalyst used during world war two on aviation fuel, funny old world!
The last old Mercedes 230 I bought a few years ago had a pipe about a foot long attached to the fuel line supposed to be full of tin I believe, any way I took it off and the car never ran half as good, so I put it back on again, we do indeed live in a strange world.
billy
 
i tried putting my fathers ashes in a noisy diff once, it didnt work, but gave my mother summat to whine about tho, mmmm
Reg
 
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