Today I have been mostly

[Adrian Southgate]

under the bonnet of the Sierra. I have to say the cylinder head and exhaust manifold is a very awkward lift at that height, I might have a twinge or two tomorrow :-(.

Its out now though and the top of the block has been scraped clean of kak, head bolt threads cleaned out and a clean cloth soaked in wd40 laid over the block and weighted down to keep the crap out over night. I found some interesting 'blockages' on the water channels where the previous owner hadn't popped all the gasket material out (or it wasn't cut out) which may help the water jacket do it's job a little better, maybe it wasn't the right gasket for that block?

Re-assembly should be fairly straight forward once the head has been scraped but here is a nice picture of the mess I found when I lifted the head up.

 

It was pretty well stuck on the block apart from the top right corner of the picture, that bit is stuck to the head and I suspect it has had a water leak of some description judging by the state of it.

If you look along the bottom edge of the block, right near the middle is a rust stain. This is where the water jacket should be, two riser ports either side of the cylinder and two matching ones on the other side, you can see the ones on the top right quite clearly. of the 16 openings only a couple didn't have a gasket covering them, altogether very strange.

New gasket has all 16 open so the engine cooling system should be a little more efficient.

Here's another shot of the head with the remains of the gasket removed, you can see the water channels clearly in this shot.

 I miscounted as there are three on number 1 and two big square ones behind number 4. The lower two on number 3 piston still have the material from the gasket in, flicked that out with a screwdriver and its all clear now.

[Dave Thomas]

I have Ade,thought about them that is, but never tryed them, its been very tempting at times though.!

[Adrian Southgate]

Not that I would ever advocate such a thing but have you ever thought of 'alternatives'?