Morris Minor Owners Club

Took the old girl out today, as I pulled out the drive I saw a smoke screen behind me which soon cleared, all was well till I got to my destination, after it had been ticking over for a whle i revved her and got a white smoke screen billowing out the back. I shot round the back and smelt it, didn't smell oily and wasn;t blue smoke so jumped back in and drove home, no smoke except when i stopped for a while at a junction and the same when backing into the drive.

Checked the oil level, all OK, checked the rad and found the level a bit low and evidence of water at the overflow tube outlet so I rekon we are looking at a duff head gasket. Weird it just happened but I must admit it sounded "funny" on tickover, a bit lumpy like it was running on 3 cylinders so should I rush headlong into changing the head gasket or has anyone any other ideas ??

You have done the normal checks but you can pinpoint which cylinder if it is head gasket by checking the colour of your spark plugs you may find if it is headgasket one plug has like a greyish spotting this helps to know for sure the area to look for any major faults ie cracks its probably just head gasket I have seen inlet manifold gasket leaking water into inlet ports but I cant remember if the Morris inlet manifold is water cooled. good luck

Certainly sounds like HG failure....

Having just changed a head gasket, I got a compression tester (after the excellent advice received here) and tested the cylinders first. Certainly clears things up before you start pulling anything apart.

Well done for sorting yours out Ferret... A compression test will definately confirm if it is HG failure but I think the steam from the exhaust, water loss and pressurised water system confirms in this case also.....
Time to get the spanners out

I cant remember if the Morris inlet manifold is water cooled.

Not if its a standard one.
If you change the head gasket dont forget to check that the head is still nice and flat.

yes I just hapened to stumble on a 1970 4 door morris today in local scrapyard and I had to look at that but I wasn,t sure so I thought I should mention it. going to put it on forum incase parts are needed by anyone

The clouds of 'white smoke' certainly suggests water leaking into a cylinder -producing steam. This is an unusual type of head gasket failure, but not unknown! It may not show any significant drop in compression testing. It could be a crack in the head - but hopefully not!

Drained the cooling system, removed some of the anciliarys and the plugs today, number 3 was actualy wet (not petrol but water droplets) so we know where to look, off to DSN in the morning to collect parts ( only about 35 miles away from me) would have had them couriered but dumbo visa card company messed up the security No. on my new card so couln't pay over the phone and have em sent to me.
Will report back when its been stripped out to tell you what I find. Also ordered new water pump and theromostat whilst I was at it so I might get a working heater as well !!!!

Right got the head off looks like the gasket failed to seal 2 & 3 and you can see from the pics that no 3 actually had water in piston. Got all the bits so will be re assembling tommorow as I can't see any cracks just think its a duff gasket. i will be checking if its flat as well before re assembling.<br><br><br><br><br><br>

Hope I,m not sounding daft but looking at the rusty colour of the water it would appear that the anti Freeze could maybe be a bit stronger I know cast iron heads and blocks show more rust but it just looks like it needs to be stronger and a good flush out as you probably was going to do theres a really good tool to test the strength of anti freeze you just suck a bit water out of rad in a syringe type thing look at the reading and it tells you the strength. just ignore me if you already know all this not trying to teach me grandma how to suck eggs

#3 chamber looks very oily for some reason - as does the inlet manifold port to 3 and 4 ? Usually if a cylinder runs with 'water injection' it comes out completely clean ! I trust you will be grinding in the valves and having a good look at the valve seats for any cracks before refitting the head.

One other thing to do is change the bypass hose while you have got it all apart, dont bother with the bellows type as they dont last that long just replace it with the correct type you have on there now, they are readily available as they are only a section of heater hose and will probably last 10 times longer than the bellows type.

Check the head and block carefully for 'bowing' - it does look as though it hasn't been properly sealed down around #3 cylinder and between 3 and 4. You probably caught it just in time before it burned away the gasket!

Thanks for the reminder I got a new bypass hose as a matter of course after reading earlier postings before my gasket went.

BMC thanks for the advice on valves but will have to wait till the next payday to get a vavle spring compressor and as its such an easy job whipping the head off it should not give me a problem. I dont think the head was torqued down evenly when it was last done and I found evidence of an old gasket under the present one when scraping the block so it probably had issues with seating. It all seems quite happy now with no smoke screen and another bonus, the heater works now, the last "engineer" had used soo much silicone on the bottom of them tap it blocked the hole up....... nearly.

Anyway we are back on the road with the enevitable "Grin"

Well done - another job ticked off the list

Well done - now - re torque the nuts and re-set the valve gaps !

You can boorow my valve spring compressor (as long as you return it!) I live in Martham

Nice one will give you a shout when I am next free to do the job. I have to do some proper work and earn some dosh first

Pick up a spare head - and get it ready in advance for a quick swap-over.