Fourth Time Blown Head Gasket

[WT2002CARS]

Hey everyone, 

Suicidal Lotus Esprit V8 twin turbo owner here. I have had engine rebuilt with new heads and I'm convinced this V8 has been chipped as literally at 140mph from 4th to 5th gear with accelerator down you can spin the rear wheels. However the head gasket keeps blowing. Yep fourth time now so completely numb now. Can anyone help me or offer advice as to get it detuned ? I love this car and it's going to be the death of me. Every time the coolant blows into exhaust via head gasket. Look forward to any help. Regards Wayne

[ramjet]

I presume that if the heads are new that the block has also been checked for flatness?

I can't help with any info to get it detuned, but I am sure that some of the other V8 owners will be along to help out.

Four times. I can understand you being annoyed. (understatement, I know)

[silverfrost]

As Michael has said above you need to check the flatness.  Is it always the same cylinder head that keeps blowing.?  But yes defo check the flatness of the block and also the cylinder head, chances are it has warped and you/the workshop have been just cleaning and refitting it which will sometimes hold for a short while on the new gasket but eventually blow through.  I would also be looking into what boost you are running the car at, not really a turbo man myself so others will shed more light. 

Four times i can see why you are going crazy, must of cost you a fortune, more so that your engine has survived the cambelt been replaced four times, most people do not like fitting these once every blue moon let alone four times.... 

I hope this gets sorted soon for your sake and the cars.

[mike_sekinger]

To echo the other comments, check the mechanical topics - flatness, correct parts, torque settings etc.

But it sounds to me that you have incorrect or even no boost control - I would check to make sure that your wastegates are installed with the correct springs and that the base mechanical boost is set correctly. Check that your wastegates are actually moving and are not seized.

I doubt that your ECU is the main source of your problem, but you could swap out for one with a standard calibration to confirm that.  I'm assuming that you do not have an aftermarket boost controller?

If you are constantly running with overboost, I would expect the head gaskets struggle time and time again.

[WT2002CARS]

Thanks for all your advice Guy's and will share with you the outcome as I replaced heads last time as well. So I'm scratching my head. Cheers

[Barrykearley]

Fingers crossed for you chap. Mikes spot on as ever - you need to make sure it isn't overboosting. The capsules and wastegate are easy to test

look forward to a nice positive post where she's back running again

[Guest]

Where did you buy your head gasket and are they oem or aftermarket, my headgasket blew 3 times same thing, and it was built buy people who built motors there whole lives, my cars just got restored again 3 time and rebuilt balaced blue printed and i wasnt told that they sent me after market head gasket? 4 timesss i was sent these after market gasket , now im really angry and mad just like you can you tell me what you gaskets aremfrom where did you order and are they oem?

[gmendoza]

Who built the car? Any idea what's been installed?

Even if your car was running perfect, shifting hard enough to make the tires break loose at 140mph is just begging for trans issues.

2nd, MLS headgaskets need a perfect surface to seal correctly. The surface needs to be like glass basically. If you can see machining marks, like a vinyl record, it'll leak.

3rd, rumor has it that the Esprit has a tendency to lift heads at very high boost with stock head bolts. Were ARP studs installed?

4th, how do you know its a head gasket issue? Overheating after WOT run? Water mixing with oil?

Like others have said, I'd check your boost first and get that under control.

 

[Barrykearley]

I'm not so sure they would want that directly reposting chap ??

[silverfrost]

I am with Barry on this one, To disclose what someone else has written in good nature  in a private email is pretty rude in my mind. But on the  other hand you could of written what ever as its not a direct post so how do people know if you have not changed some of the wording. 

Either way still pretty rude imo 

[Guest]

Not rude at all, its public information not a secret disclosure, i dont want knowone to go thru the nightmae ive been thru, people wants experts to chime in on this subject other then just owners.  And if my horror story is saving a human being from a complete nightmare day and nite for year after year then cheers.

After all the money me and my family have spent on 1 car please i have the right to do alot of things not only is it rude to try to cover up someone prefessional expertise  to not tell people. Thats whats rude, . I dont got nothing to hide and knowone has handed me a dam thing in compensation so do you really think i g.a.f.like i said luckily i love my car or else i woulda went and bought another highly desirable car to add to the collection and left everyone sad that a beautiful restored esprit v8 isnt flying aroundmaking peoples jaws drop. Think of both ur comments and then maybe ask yourself 1 thing are you a sheep or are u a wolf????

Edited September 10, 2016 by Esprit1129

[Guest]

????????? from all my secret admirer ers 

Edited September 10, 2016 by Esprit1129

[silverfrost]

K calm down, you need to think before you post,  Coming accross as aggressive in posts and then editing them afterwards inserting less aggressive words is not very grown up. Regarding words like sheep or wolf, I have no idea what you are talking about. 

You come accross as a sort of strange internet troll type with some of your wordings, you remind me of a certain member called Teigan from many years ago who just had an amazing way of rubbing people up the wrong way.   First time i have posted on this forum about someone elses posts in 11 years. 

Chill out and try not to take everything to heart. 

[Barrykearley]

I'd simply like the facts.

we have two different gaskets - it could be gaskets, head flatness, block flatness - a combination of all of those - one gasket might cope with imperfections better than another ?? I don't know - but it needs putting to bed.

[Bibs]

3 hours ago, silverfrost said:

so how do people know if you have not changed some of the wording

I know because I can see the edits and he's removed the part of the email where Pete mentioned that everyone, including Lotus is out of stock of the OEM head gaskets. Since this is clearly an attempt to mislead, misinform and misdirect people this member is once again banned.

[Barrykearley]

Thanks @Bibs

i think it's important that this issue is explicitly clear. It's more than likely different gaskets need a different process. It's very important given the cost that we know what the issues are.

im just very happy I didn't pull the heads off mine

[Vanya]

Really sounds like it's a lack of boost control - especially regarding the wheelspin at high gears.

With new tires in the dry I don't get any wheelspin in my V8 - maybe 1st or 2nd if I pushed them, but I don't thrash those gears so much. Definitely no spinning in 3rd and up. And last I checked my boost was behaving right.

[jonwat]

On 11/09/2016 at 08:02, Vanya said:

With new tires in the dry I don't get any wheelspin in my V8 - maybe 1st or 2nd if I pushed them, but I don't thrash those gears so much. Definitely no spinning in 3rd and up. And last I checked my boost was behaving right.

I'm surprised at that as on a good dry road when the turbo started boosting my S4s would spin the wheels in third, although I had fitted the PUKE High Torque chip. 

[Vanya]

I'd buy that on a 4 cylinder Esprit since the power comes on suddenly. The v8 is quite linear all the way through the power range, pulling more in higher revs.

[Chillidoggy]

The rest of us just use decent tyres to stop the wheelspin............

[WT2002CARS]

Buy OEM head gaskets. 
 

[mascudkoray]

On 06/09/2016 at 00:50, WT2002CARS said:

Hey everyone, 

Suicidal Lotus Esprit V8 twin turbo owner here. I have had engine rebuilt with new heads and I'm convinced this V8 has been chipped as literally at 140mph from 4th to 5th gear with accelerator down you can spin the rear wheels. However the head gasket keeps blowing. Yep fourth time now so completely numb now. Can anyone help me or offer advice as to get it detuned ? I love this car and it's going to be the death of me. Every time the coolant blows into exhaust via head gasket. Look forward to any help. Regards Wayne

I would be looking into what boost you are running the car at, not really a turbo man myself so others will shed more light. 

[jerzybondov]

On 26/06/2021 at 22:15, WT2002CARS said:

Buy OEM head gaskets. 
 

So did this problem get solved in the end?