What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Howard Wright]

Grrrrrr.

Today I opened up the garage to find a small pool of water under the tail of the exhaust pipe.  Where had that come from I wondered.  

Cylinder head off and the source of the water was apparent!  It could have been coming through the gasket from one of the water passageways between head and block, possibly up one of the cylinder head studs or even through a manifold stud.  I’ve put Loctite around the rear cylinder head studs and checked and sealed all the manifold studs. 


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I did try cleaning and replacing the head gasket, but as well as this not working (water present in the combustion chamber again), I managed to pull out the centre cylinder head stud (already a stepped stud)

So I’m waiting for a new head gasket to arrive!

The engine was rebuilt 500 miles ago and had run quite well apart from some overheating problems due to what I thought was a clogged radiator.  It may be that the water leak was the cause of overheating or that the radiator flush I used may have done too good a job!

Cheers

Howard