Blowing head gaskets.

My 1946 Farmall A has blown it's 3rd head gasket in 5 years. I only use it for mowing with a 5 foot wide pull behind rough cut mower. I have been mowing with this tractor for 13 years now. About 5 years ago the old head gasket blew, motor still ran but the crankcase would fill up with coolant and smoke badly. Took the head off, installed a new head gasket with copper sealant, torqued the head to the revised IH specs, then retorqued it warm. After 2 years it blew again, so I checked the head for flatness and sure enough it was warped. Had it milled flat again and repeated the install. After 1 and a half years the head gasket just blew on me again today, just started pumping out white smoke like a steam engine.

The motor doesn't seem to be overheating, but thinking back it seemed to be slowly losing a little power over the summer. Could it be the copper gasket sealant? The head gasket instructions said to use it but can that stuff be failure prone? I also had to replace a shim head gasket in my small block Chevy 6 years ago and it is still holding up fine and I did not use sealant on that motor. Any other throughts? Is it just common for head gaskets to not just last that long on these tractors? Are some brands of head gaskets just better than others? Maybe the deck on the block itself is warped? Does the A need to be jack supported in a special way while the head is torqued since the block is also a load bearing member? Just really stumped by so many failures.

You probably have a non-flat head of block if you are blowing gaskets. I would take the head to a machine shop next time and get it planed.

I did get it planed (milled) at a local machine shop when it blew the second time, just blew again anyway. I am concerned that maybe the deck on the block also needs planing in which case would be a engine rebuild if it has to be taken that much apart.

If you had the head planed and then had leakage i would use hi-temp aluminum spray paint couple coats on the gasket that process has never failed me and i have done several in my fleet of Cubs,A and Bs some have been around for 20 pluss yrs or more. Never had any luck with the copper spray it leaked thats why i went to the hi-temp paint.

You might want to shop around for a different brand of head gasket. Even the good old brand name gaskets are not made here anymore.

I think I have daim bramage and do read things completely, I would suspect the block in this instance.

I would check the block and the head again and then replace the studs and head bolts, they can and do stretch, and you will never get it to seal.

Other thing is maybe the head studs are stretched? I have heard of mixed reviews about using copper spray sealants on head gaskets.

I really hope it is not the block deck since I assume to plan that the engine must be completely dismantled. I just don't want to have to tear a whole engine down.

you need two flat mating surfaces, not one. also you need the proper torque and retorque once run for an hr. those spray on things are just insurance, as they not really necessary. they are not sprayed at the factory, but I do use permatex hi-tack gasket spray on them. don"t forget a lot of gaskets have the sealant built right in them.

Clean the top of the block and the mating surface of the head. Set the head on the block, without a gasket. Try to push down on each corner of the head to see if you can get it to rock. Get a feeler gauge and try to slide a thin blade between the block and the head. I do not know how much gap will be acceptable, but it is a starting point to determine if one or both are warped.
SDE

So if the block deck is warped, what would I do? To plan the block flat again, would the engine need to be completely disassembled?

Hi
one thing I have come across with many make
tractors blowing gaskets after new ones are
fitted, Is that sometimes a guy gets a load of
crap like carbon/rust drops down the blind hole in the
block when taking it apart. Then the bolt
can bottom on this. when this happens the torque
wrench clicks off. but the heads not down tight on
one or more bolts. if it"s had more than one
gasket in it"s life with nobody cleaning the holes
out, you could have 1/4 or more junk compressed in
the bottom of the holes.

The other thing I just found on a Deere 8430 motor
was the last guy that did the head before it came
here, after running 2 hours and blowing again!.
Was that he way over oiled the bolts, and the oil
ran down the holes causing the studs to hydraulic
lock, in the blind holes in the block. when i un did the head
it was slack, I know it was torqued correct as
factory trained tech made a big thing out of doing
it correctly/ and updates, when the customer fitted gasket blew
after 2 hours as well.
When I got the bolts out the holes were nearly
full of fresh motor oil, cooling fluid can do the same if any gets in the holes on dissassembley and is not cleaned out.
Might not be your problems but worth a mention from what I have seen personally on these jobs.
Regards Robert

No one has said anything about the sleeves. I had
a problem with blowing head gaskets on my Super C
and found that the sleeves were protruding too far
above the block deck. I ended up measuring how
much each protruded above the block with a
straight edge and feeler gauge and then pulled
them and had the sleeves machined off to get the
correct protrusion which should only be a few
thousands. The first thing to check though is to
pull the sleeves and see if the grooves are clean.
Was this engine recently overhauled? If so I
would certainly suspect the sleeves.

I would take a flat edge and set on top of block and check for gaps with a feeler gauge,a gasket can still seal right if gap is 8-10 thousands,Also make sure to put the gasket on with right side up,the flat side down on block side and the raised edge around the cylinders are up to the head.The gasket sealant can't hurt anything as long as you get it tightened down before it completely sets up.

(quoted from post at 13:53:09 08/03/14) No one has said anything about the sleeves. I had
a problem with blowing head gaskets on my Super C
and found that the sleeves were protruding too far
above the block deck. I ended up measuring how
much each protruded above the block with a
straight edge and feeler gauge and then pulled
them and had the sleeves machined off to get the
correct protrusion which should only be a few
thousands. The first thing to check though is to
pull the sleeves and see if the grooves are clean.
Was this engine recently overhauled? If so I
would certainly suspect the sleeves.

Click to expand...

As far as I know the motor hasn't been overhauled and the sleeves are probably original. Is it possible for old sleeves to get pulled up a little somehow? But it is looking more and more the otherwise fine running motor is going to need a rebuild just to fix the block deck.

the only reason it would have to be taken apart is for the milling machine mounting. if there is a way of mounting then ,no. use a straight edge for checking warpage. usually anything over .010 requires milling.

The other thing I am thinking, can coolant seep through the threads of the head studs? I know with Chevy V8s that if you do not use sealant on the head bolt threads, then coolant will seep through the theads and ruin the head gasket seal. Do the head studs on C113 motors also screw into the water jacket and require sealant like SBCs? Could it be the thread sealant has gone bad allowing coolant seepage to mess up the head gaskets.