Blown Head Gasket

We don't retorque the head bolts on the graphite gaskets but do on the metal sandwich type. The inserts are the best way to go except in a couple of spots there isn't much meat to hold them.
I wonder if you could have had a carb leak or flooding and one of these cylinders had gasoline in it and it hydralliced the gasket when starting. Most
engines have a favorite spot they stop in every time. I assume you re-checked the head and block in this area. You might try the metal sandwich gasket. Cords usually don't have a problem in this area.

Stan

Hi Jim, I don't know much about 810,812 but are you using stainless bolts? If so they won't hold a torque.

Hi Stan,
Thanks for the ideas. I've done all these things. When I rebuilt the engine I put threaded inserts (not heli-coils) in all the head bolt holes. The block and the head have been sufaced and are flat to less then .0005". When I install a head I usually torque the bolts in a series of steps from snug, 30 , 40 , 50, 55 and check again at 55.

So far I can only come up with two posibilities on why the gasket blew twice in the same spot -
First - I don't go back and retorque the heads when there is a composite gasket. posibility the bolt backed off and there wans't enough compression on the gasket in this are. I don't know what the chances are of the same bolt backing off twice are.
Second - There doesn't seem to be a lot of meat between the bolt hole and the combustion chamber where the leak occured. It may be possible the composit gasket needs more surface area between the bolt and the combustion chanber and is burning out there.

Any ideas or comments???

Cords do not have a reputation for blowing head gaskets. Modern composites or laminated metal both work well. Torque is always 55 ft lbs. Replacing all of the bolt holes with threaded inserts is also reccomended. Of course, the heads and blocks must be surfaced. If you do get water in the combustion chamber, it will hydraulic the head gasket. This is better than the alternative. You cannot use a sealant on the composites that are coated with graphite. We have one customer who has repeatedly driven his car well over 100 mph since 1985 & he has not lost a head gasket or anything else, thank God. Make sure to torque the heads to 40 then 50 then 55 from the center out!

Stan

Like you, I have had problems with the composite gasket. Mine has blown twice in the same spot in the past. The engine rebuild is correct also. I switched to copper last year and do not have a problem. I have used Indian head gasketed sealer and torque initially to 50 #'s . I have retorqued to 65#'s later. On the next (4) engines I have used copper.

I've blown the head gasket on my Cord twice now in the same location under the same conditions. I'm looking for any suggestions to prevent this from happening again (short of changing my driving habits).

I'm running a composite head gasket. The head and the manifold have been milled and are flat (I've checked repeatedly).

Both times I blew the gasket in the 1R cylinder right above the intake valve. It blew from the combustion chamber to the bolt right above intake valve and then eventually into the water jacket.

The bolt and hole threads are good. These are new bolts and the hole has threaded inserts in it.

Both times the inital leak occured after a prolonged run (several hours) at highway speeds. The inital leak was just an exhaust leak. The leak into the water jacket did not occur for several more hours.

Does anyone have any ideas on why the head gasket blew twice?

What do people torque their heads to?

Does anyone retorque their heads with the composite gaskets?

Does anyone use any kind of sealer on the composite head gaskets? What kind?

Jim