ww2dodge.com Forum

Hi folks,
well I was out showing a prospective buyer my WC 53 and suddenly I'm running of 4 cylinders! blown head gasket between #3 and #4 cylinders.

When I rebuilt the engine I had the head and top of the cylinder block planed (resurfaced), and am thinking I will probably need to get the head resurfaced again. Does anyone know what the minimum thickness of the cylinder head might be please?

Yes, I used head gasket sealant and retorqued the head once the engine was warmed up.

Are these ehgines prone to blown head gaskets?

Cheers

Ian

No minimum that I know of, until you get close to the water jacket of course.

The close pairs have only 5/16" thickness between them, which is why over boring isn't good. Assuming you have the head off anyway, check the cylinder head AND the block for flatness before you do anything else. It may be that you have flattened a head that had adapted itself to a not-flat block.

Big sheet of emery paper or whatever and rub the head on it to check contact, rather than machining.

Thanks Gordon, the head and block were both planed when I rebuilt the engine. However when we checked the head under a straight edge we found around 0.006" warpage right at the gasket failure point. I suspect this was caused by the unstable water temp issue that I was dealing with for a while (160f snd suddenly 220f). The old style thermostats seem to be the best in terms of temperature stability, this is based on 5 years of chasing different replacement combinations. In desperation I sourced a 72 degrees "C" thermostat out of France, and now the temp gets to 160f and pretty much stays there!
Anyways, the Carry All is sold and here endeth my ownership of WW11 Dodges. I do believe they are the sexiest (no apology for the naughty language) WW11 vehicles, but age is making my enjoyment of them challenging.

Given that my dad commandeered a swamped Canadian Jeep on the beaches of Normandy on June 6th 1944 as a member of the 5th/7th Gordon Highlanders, I will continue to have a keen interest in MV's.

Bless you all!!!
Cheers

Ian

Good luck Ian, and thanks for the posts over the years.

's M30a1 Thanks Gordon,
I have a 1998 Land Rover Wolf hard top sitting at Dartford waiting for a ship to arrive, that will be a shed mate for my 1950's M30a1 Jeep.

Cheers

Ian