Geoff
Interesting comment about two head gaskets as I did that a few years ago on a Bristol and it is still going strong, Mike my friend, mechanic and welder said that they used to do this a lot on Hillman Imps without any problem. A local engineer advocated a shim being placed between two head gaskets, a tractor owning friend confirmed that is the way he would approach the problem. He agreed totally that two head gasket was risky so I may not try that again,
Forums regarding the Rover K series engine recommend that the head saver shim is glued to the head, I have come across an article by Spencer Lane Jones where he mentions sealing the decompression plate to the block with wellseal so it does seem all sorts of options present themselves with a fair degree of luck thrown into the equation.
I had a good look at the head today it is an early 85A which had suffered a lot of corrosion problems and despite obvious repairs it is actually quite true face wise with no distortion, as it is fully built up I am going to try and use it.
The previous owner of the car has worked out the CR at around 10.5:1 and to return it to 8.5:1 it needs gaskets and or shims of around 3mm.
I see one supplier offers a 2 mm gasket so what roughly would the CR be with that option, you mention the engine run better with a higher CR , is 10.5 :1 too high for road use and what sort of adjustment would have to be made to timing.
I have not asked the previous owner what type of pistons are fitted but they are domed without flats on the side.
The block is an 85 series with 85c crank and 100A cam from what I can gather so a real bitsa.
Geoff K.
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