TIV Cylinder Head Gaskets, what is the official story???? Options

[John]

I am having some leakage problems with a 2.0 4-cyl and I am trying to narrow down where the leak is coming from.

I thought it was an exhaust leak, but have changed heat exchangers, had the new exchanger off several times and Can not seem to see any evidence of the exhaust leak at the copper exhaust gaskets. None of the exhaust studs are loose or pulled.

I even went to the extent of changing cylinder heads, but the leak remains.

When I changed cylinder heads, I did not know of any information regarding the elimination of the cylinder head gaskets, so I believe that I have them installed.

How likely is it that the cylinder head gaskets can be the source of a leak?

My exhaust leak is intermittent when the engine is up to temperature. (It is quiet while it is warming up idling, but after it is warmed up, sometimes at idle you can notice what sounds like a slight exhaust leak. Not real loud, but noticable)

I was thinking that it may be a cracked cylinder (near the mating surface of the head), but the more I have read about the elimination of the cylinder head gaskets, the more I think that the leak could be those aluminum gaskets.




Does anyone have any information with regards to a bulletin released concerning the elimination of these cylinder head gaskets, and could I get a copy? I would greatly appreciate some advice on this matter.

Thanks.

[Jake Raby]

The "Other" aircooled engines i used to work with were Turbo Shafts.... Our ignitor plugs installed into an 85,000 buck combustor section and had a tendency to seize with the extreme temperatures. If they seized it wiped out the combustor....

We could not use anti seize on the ignitor plugs because it effected their grounding and would zap our ignition exciters (400K+ volts)..... So the standard practice was MOM- and it works very well....and does not effect grounding because the magnesium is a slight conductor.

Using MOM on spark plugs works great... It especially helps on race engines using corrosive fuels that can build up on spark plug threads and wipe out the heads when removed..For those we normally trim the bottom thread off the plug so it doesn't protrude at all into the chamber..

I also use dental floss when assembling engines- learned that one from working with a few lycomings! You can read about that one in my sealants handbook!