Guest bastaad525 Posted March 15, 2004 Share Posted March 15, 2004 Well I forget who asked me to post these but here they are: This is the #5 cylinder... as I said there is a pretty sizeable chunk of the metal ring missing. You can also see above and to the right of the cylinder, the break in the gasket material between the water passage and the cylinder. Dont see how this ended up spraying coolant outside the engine. I've never seen a blown gasket before so I dunno if this looks 'normal' or not, the way the ring is broken like that. This is the #4 cylinder. You can see the groove along the top edge of the ring. Cylinder #'s 2, 3, 4, and 6 all had grooves similiar to this along that same edge (the same size as where the #5 was broken) which leads me to believe the gasket wasn't lined up properly and maybe the pistons were hitting the rings on the gasket, and the #5 ring just got hit enough that finally piece of it got broken off, and of course w/o that reinforcing ring it was only a matter of time before pressure broke thru the soft part and caused the gasket to blow. Of course, I'm just speculating.... anyone have any other ideas why the metal rings on the gasket would all (except one) be damaged this way? BTW... the forum still not auto logging me in, no matter how many times I check that box, and usually, I have to relog in every time I try to post... I haven't changed any settings on my machine to cause this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted March 15, 2004 Share Posted March 15, 2004 Lets see if I can't get the pics to show up in the post.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted March 15, 2004 Share Posted March 15, 2004 w000t figured it out finally!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZmeFly Posted March 15, 2004 Share Posted March 15, 2004 Thats not a pretty site Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted March 15, 2004 Share Posted March 15, 2004 You're telling me. Funny thing is I"m willing to bet that it's been like that for a while... I dont think it just happened in a flash. I had been noticing for some time that I had some persistent "valve noise" (what I THOUGHT to be valve noise) that no I couldn't get rid of no matter how many times I adjusted the valves. I now believe that that tapping was actually the sounds of the pistons hitting the rings of the gasket. I have noticed the engine does seem quiter since installing the new gasket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted March 15, 2004 Share Posted March 15, 2004 No one with any ideas as to the cause of the broken ring or the grooves? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleeperZ Posted March 15, 2004 Share Posted March 15, 2004 No one with any ideas as to the cause of the broken ring or the grooves? All I can think of is you had a misaligned gasket to begin with. Faulty parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 I guess the main thing I'm looking for... I mean like I said, I've never blown a gasket before, and never seen what it looks like, so I dont know how typical or atypical the damage to this one was. If you guys agree that by the looks of it it was misaligned, then I can breathe easier. Of course my first thought when it blew was that it musta been pinging or something... basically that I was running too much boost and not enough fuel and that this was my fault. So now I'm running around with lowered boost and retarded timing and have loosened the AFM spring to richen it up a bit and of course the car is not as fun and I'm kinda afraid to get on it as well. At least until I know relatively for sure what caused the gasket to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spork Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 I've blown a couple head gaskets in different 280zxt's. They have always deformed the gasket. Instead of the cylinder fire ring being round it would be pushed out or elongated in certain areas. Hell, In a buddies hond he actually shoved pushed a copper head gasket down into a water jacket, but I've never seen one like yours. I too would agree that there was a good chance the the gasket was either damaged or improperly aligned when it the head was installed. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zguy95135 Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 reminds me of the old gasket, except it had been burned between cylinder 1 and 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 A little update here, for anyone who might have wanted to know. This was NOT a Felpro gasket, as I had believed, rather, it was a Roc gasket. Roc is the brand that Napa carries for a lot of Z parts. I was kinda skeptical of them to begin with as I'd never heard of them before about 3 mos ago. My rings and bearings are also Roc parts.... I hope that's not a bad sign of things to come! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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