Is this a sign of a leaking head gasket?

JMO · 07-03-2009, 12:36 AM

The patches you can see were under the bbm. There aren't any other signs of leakage (dropping coolant, oil etc). They were damp to the touch but didn't have any odour as far as I could tell. What do you guys think?

The moist patches are the darker areas on the rusted block.

Don't pay any attention to the dribbly bit you see to the right, that was my doing.

I've been trying to track down the cause of my rough idle and tried almost everything. Last on my list was the fuel sock. Now this has me worried :(

EvilChief · 09-03-2009, 02:00 AM

looks and soubds like a shitty intake manifold gasket. were the bolts tighst when u removed the BBM. what was the condition of gasket like. not uncommon for fuel/carbo to sweat through when teh gasket is not tight enough, which also causes rough idle, shitty fuel economy etc

JMO · 09-03-2009, 02:58 AM

It was pretty clean under the gasket. The residue is part of what was left while I was cleaning the inside out. The bolts had a little give in them, so I didn't tighten them a hard as I could, Just tight enough so they didn't move any more with the wring spanner unless I put a fair bit of effort into it. I have a habit of shearing bolts by being over cautious with the tightening. Hopefully it is as tight as it should be.

**Stav** · 10-03-2009, 11:41 PM

It looks like a rocker cover leak.Look at the oil stain coming down the side of the port...

JMO · 11-03-2009, 11:06 AM

The bit circled in red is just part of what I was cleaning out of the port itself. There isn't anything leaking from the rocker cover. The moist patch circled in blue is what I'm worried about. It was moist to the touch but had no odour as far as I could tell. It also looks like it is coming from where the head gasket is. There aren't any pipes close enough to where it is to make a moist patch.

**Stav** · 11-03-2009, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JMO

The bit circled in red is just part of what I was cleaning out of the port itself. There isn't anything leaking from the rocker cover. The moist patch circled in blue is what I'm worried about. It was moist to the touch but had no odour as far as I could tell. It also looks like it is coming from where the head gasket is. There aren't any pipes close enough to where it is to make a moist patch.

Look above the blue circle.it seems like fuel stain leading straight to that area from the head.

JMO · 11-03-2009, 09:41 PM

If by head you mean rocker cover, how does fuel leak from there? As I said it doesn't appear as though anything is leaking from the rocker.