Head Warpred? Can I "fix"?

[timbuk2]

Hey folks...

Been awhile, eh? Hope everyone stayin shiny...


'82 Shovel, 300k+ miles with a rebuild last year.

Anyway - blown head gasket. Obviously drawing from the oil return port in the rear cylinder from the evidence.

I'm concerned the head may be warped, and would like to check it out. I assume using blue dye is the method to at least see if the head/jugs are in agreement if not perfectly flat? My search here came up short.

Beyond that, I allowed someone else to rebuild my bike and they aren't owning up to the leak which burned up 4 quarts in about 3K miles and many annoying fouled plugs (shame on me and wont happen again, lazy or not). But what I found after I pulled the head are these weird blue head gaskets. Look like plastic. I'm not impressed, but maybe this is the "new thing". Anyone with experience with these?

Bottom line is can I mate up the head and jugs with the blue dye and say... emery cloth maybe? Assuming that there IS any warp of course. I've had pretty good luck in the past and never even had a reason to check. I'd really like to avoid any machining on the heads if I can. Try and get away with a little "touch-up" if it's feasible.

My only other observation is the head bolts seemed WAY too tight to me. I'd have to double check, but I'm pretty sure I've never run them much beyond 45 ft-lbs. Whatever my shop manual says. These seemed far beyond that - just from past experience pulling the heads off.

Thanks in advance - Say "hey" to the old folks for me.

[rwpatton]

Heads warping on a shovel is not that common. It does happen but not often. Any machine shop worth salt can check it for you.All they need is a flat plate and feeler gauges.The blue gaskets are good. they are teflon and seal very well. The most common problem with shovel headgasket problems is torqueing procedure done wrong. Intial torque sequence must be done in steps i.e. 15,25,35,45,55.allowing a minute or so between torque changes.
Then the motor can be started and warmed to operating temperature.Once heated up allow to cool down completely to room temperature and re-torque.This normally will solve most headgasket problems.Oh yeah..do not use any oil or antisieze on the headbolts,dry only.

fwiw
RW

[timbuk2]

Thanks for the insight RW...

Impatience got the best of me, and I replaced the gasket and put her back together. While cleaning off the old gasket material, I used a scraper razor - about 4 inches long - and eyeballed the surfaces on the razor's edge. I won't say that is a particularly good test, but it looked perfect to me. So what the heck, bolted it back together and if the problem persists, it's just another hour and another gasket.

So far so good. Still have some smoking from the cylinder but I suspect a lot of that is residual oil in the exhaust, etc.

Thanks for the gasket review as well. I noted there was significant ridges around the bolt holes, so in theory they should make an excellent seal. You are likely right that the head bolts were torqued incorrectly. I really hate to think the guy who rebuilt my bike doesn't know any better. He has an excellent reputation so I'm not going to speculate too much and chalk it up to "just one of those things".

Well - test ride time.