The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

The head gasket on our Super Major recently failed. We had the head skimmed and refitted it last weekend.
After running the tractor for a few minutes water started to seep from the rear between the head and block.
We stripped it back down again and the new gasket more or less fell to pieces as we did, so we put it down to a bad gasket.
We have now refitted with another gasket and this time water started to seep out as soon as the radiator was filled.
We stripped it out again, looked for any obvious problems, cleaned everything and tried again but still have the same problems.
We plan to take the head back to the machinist and ask them to check it over again but is there anything I should be looking for ???

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,

Have you checked the liner protrution? Should be between .002" and .004". You can have too much and it sounds like the head is not nipping down on the gasket.

What gasket are you using? I would go for the composit type gasket over the copper asbestos one every time.

At the back is the water jacket. Could either the head or the block be cracked here?

Thanks Brian,
We haven't checked the protrusion but will do now.
It had new liners fitted a couple of years ago and had been no problem up to now.
We are using a composite gasket... it was a copper one that came off though.
We cannot see any cracks but will have to have a better look. For the rate the water is coming out you would think you could see it by eye!

Thanks again,