Blown gasket or worse..?

When I did my Dino motor, I was looking for Elring (thinking they were the uber-gasket), but they didn't make them for the Dino, or at least I couldn't find them. So I used Spesso. It weeps ever so tiny amount of oil, and I've seen traces of coolant by the studs. I continually clean the motor, and have found that if it sits for any length of time, and then I drive it, I'll find evidence of this, but if I drive it pretty soon thereafter, it's great. If I drive it a 3rd, or 4th time, it's also good. I wonder if I was less fanatical of the rolling sculpture, would I have even noticed ??

Anyway - good to know about another replacement part to be careful of.

 

Some years ago I did research at a well known performance shock absorber manufacturer about torque settings for bolts. The outcome was something I did not expect. As rifledriver states a huge part of the torque applied is to overcome friction between thread flanks and bolt/nut surface to the part that needs to be tensioned. At lower toque settings this is not a significant factor but the higher the torque the more significant it gets.
What you want is a series of bolt that apply even pressure, doing it by torque wrench means nothing more or less than applying the same torque to the nut but has very little to do with the actual pressure applied.
I've seen differences of 80% in pressure between bolt tightened to the same torque (measured with a loadcell between the surfaces), with brand new bolts and nuts out of the same box also up to 40%.
Better is to tension to a low torque and after that turn a specific angular rotation. This way you eliminate the friction out of the equation.
Best is to have stretch bolts that are beyond there elastic limit because this means that they will be equal for sure.
This is also more of less the evolution that cylinder head bolts made over the years...

I don't build that many engines but what I do is: tension a couple of bolts to a low torque (with the old gasket in place), after that tension all of them to the specific torque described in the manual and measure at the same time the angular rotation all the bolts make. Take the average of these numbers. When you install everything, tension to that same low torque and apply the average angular rotation measured before and add some degrees to compensate for depression of the new gasket.

 

Brand new Ferrari studs do not stretch consistently enough for that method to work well. 45 year old studs really don't.

 

Hi Brian
Sorry to contradict you but you are completely wrong regarding Elring Gaskets. Contrary to your statement the head gaskets concerned (part nrs 509.418 & 510.203) are manufactured at the Elring factory in Dettingen , Germany and supplied from Elring Parts Ltd. I have this on authority from Elring Technical Sales director

Superformance UK Ltd also advise me that they take the matter very seriously about the quality and the parts they use, if for any reason you suspect the items are at fault then feel free to contact them without hesitation. They have been assured by Elring that manufacturer support is available should the need arise but it seems like the problem has been resolved in any event.

 

Give Dave Helms a call at Scuderia Rampante in Colorado, he got a new range of head gaskets due out. If anyone has a solution it will be him.
This is not a new problem, but Dave may have a new solution.

 

Curiosity got the better of me.
Rang Dave, all the testing is done, for Ferrari engines. From 250 to 512BB, 308 and QV.
Total success. No leaks, even when some irresponsible people butchered the blocks and heads and the gaskets was fully expected to fail.
246 and 206 orders can be available.
Hope this helps.