Reply To: Exhausted!

[1577Participant]

Many thanks to all for the suggestions and advice.

I shall remove the head again and do a more thorough check of the liners with them clamped down as Dave has illustrated. Water penetration into a cylinder via the lower gasket is, I agree, unlikely or even impossible but I did see an entry on YouTube which showed a penetration failure due to cavitation.

In an effort to see if there is a reason for the pressure in the crankcase, I treated myself to a cheap combustion pressure tester. After a warm up of the engine, I recorded between 6 and 7 bars on all so no problems there I guess. What I did notice however was wisps of vapour from the spark plug hole on no 4 cylinder. This must mean that water is somehow finding its way into this suspect cylinder and it must in all likelihood be from the seal between block and head despite the fact that the gaskets I have removed show equal and effective compression.

I shall have the geometry of the head checked again and also check the projection of the liners as detailed by Bernie. Failing this, I shall somehow have to see if the block itself is distorted.

Thanks again.