head gasket,
Turbo Mini Forums

basically my head gasket went last night :(

where is the best place to get a new head gasket kit?

where are you located? Personally as long as it is a decent quality gasket I would just get one from the local motor factors.

A decent quality standard gasket is fine. However what is more important is to ascertain why the old gasket went, and then put right or alter whatever caused this failure. If you don't do this the new one will surely blow again before long.

minispares north

any motor factors. get the payen bk450, or the set is something like by451

thanx guys... what signs should i look for as to why it went... warped head?

look for where it failed.

Is this car a turbo?

As already said, look and see where it's gone. Could be detonation to to incorrect setup or warped head.

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

right im actully new to turbos minis... what is detonation? i will get the head checked over when i get it off... also how much of a harder job is it to change a head gasket on a turbo mini compared to a normal one?

a tad more of a wrestle but can be done in a few hours with a pot of tea.

All high output engines are prone to destructive tendencies as a result of over boost, misfueling, mis-tuning and inadequate cooling. everone pushes ever nearer to the limits of power output.
As they often lean cylinder chamber combustion processes can quickly gravitate to engine failure. This article defines two types of engine failures, detonation and pre-ignition, that are as insidious in nature to users as they are hard to recognize and detect. This is intended only as a primer about these combustion

First, lets review normal combustion. It is the burning of a fuel and air mixture charge in the combustion chamber. It should burn in a steady, even fashion across the chamber, originating at the spark plug and progressing across the chamber in a three dimensional fashion. Similar to a pebble in a glass smooth pond with the ripples spreading out, the flame front should progress in an orderly fashion. The burn moves all the way across the chamber and , quenches (cools) against the walls and the piston crown. The burn should be complete with no remaining fuel-air mixture. Note that the mixture does not "explode" but burns in an orderly fashion.

There is another factor that engineers look for to quantify combustion. It is called "location of peak pressure (LPP)." It is measured by an in-cylinder pressure transducer. Ideally, the LPP should occur at 14 degrees after top dead center. Depending on the chamber design and the burn rate, if one would initiate the spark at its optimum timing (20 degrees BTDC, for example) the burn would progress through the chamber and reach LPP, or peak pressure at 14 degrees after top dead center. LPP is a mechanical factor just as an engine is a mechanical device. The piston can only go up and down so fast. If you peak the pressure too soon or too late in the cycle, you won't have optimum work. Therefore, LPP is always 14 degrees ATDC for any engine.

LPP is now to illustrate the idea that there is a characteristic pressure buildup (compression and combustion) and decay (piston downward movement and exhaust valve opening) during the combustion process that can be considered "normal" if it is smooth, controlled and its peak occurs at 14 degrees ATDC.

Our enlarged definition of normal combustion now says that the charge/burn is initiated with the spark plug, a nice even burn moves across the chamber, combustion is completed and peak pressure occurs at at 14 ATDC.

Confusion and a lot of questions exist as to detonation and pre-ignition. Sometimes you hear mistaken terms like "pre-detonation". Detonation is one phenomenon that is abnormal combustion. Pre-ignition is another phenomenon that is abnormal combustion. The two are somewhat related but are two distinctly different phenomenon and can induce distinctly different failure modes.

causes:- too much boost, incorect fueling and ignition timing,
charge temps too high due to the above

hope this helps

Edited by BENROSS on 9th Apr, 2008.

thanx guys... really worried bout doing it aha... also worried as for what reason it went as the engine had a rebuild 5k ago... if the head wasnt re torqed down after the rebuild would this of caused it?

Yes,

Mine went 3 times in 5 days when it wasn't torqued down properly.

Where abouts do you live? Is there someone that can come to the rescue?

In the 13's at last!.. Just

jamz if you post a pic of the head gasket where its gone, it should be easy to see, then im sure somebody will be able to give some sort of idea to the reasons of failiure.

no longer a series, but still 1.3 turbo.

my moneys inbetween 2 & 3 bores

ok will post pics soon as i have taken it off... do i have to take all the rubo and acuator out to get the head off or can you fish it out and leave the tubo and stuff down the back?