new head gasket leaking - really hacked off

[shyster]

Help, just fitted new piston rings, then fitted heads loosely, fitted inlet manifold to line things up, nipped up heads. removed inlet manifold, torqued heads down, refitted inlet manifold with hylomar then torqued down.
Fill with water and got water leaking from the l/h head, from the exhaust side nothing in the V. Now well hacked off.
I used this procedure when I did the heads last time and had no problems, so I can't think whats gone wrong. Any ideas?

[STAG1973]

Sorry to here that, did you torque all the bolts down if so i can`t see a reason for the heads to leak, unless you never had the heads skimmed, and there is a slight warp in the head.. just my thought.

Adrian

[Ian Durrant]

Were the headgaskets you used the Payen/BGA type or non branded? I had a set of non branded once that were malformed and the fire rings would not compress enough to let the rest of the gasket seal. Lucklily I spotted it before I had put it all back in and filled up with coolant!

[shyster]

Didn't have the heads skimmed, but I did give them a light rub with wet and dry to get the surface corrosion off. Gaskets were new Payen from Robsport.

[elvimto]

Did you check the block and heads for straight, also I think some people say to use Wellseal since you have to pull the head back I would recheck all the parts also I never like to have the block or head too smooth so I would not get into really fine wet and dry. I fitted my heads one at a time and it worked out ok I have them torqued at 60 ft Lb good luck with the leak
cheers Stuart

[V Mad]

Some areas of the head around the waterways are very narrow on the gasket surface, and any corrosion there is likely to lead to leaks. These areas need to be checked carefully for any pits. If they are pitted, they can be ground out then welded and skimmed, alternatively you could use JB Weld (only around waterways, not compression ring).