Head Gasket Seeping Above Serial Number

[Thodge]

I have a very minor fluid seepage from my head gasket directly above the engine number. It is barely enough to make the joint between the block and head appear wet about 1” along the seam. The head gasket isn’t blown as the engine has good compression, doesn’t overheat, and there’s no water in the oil. Should I just retorque the head and run it until it turns into a bigger problem or is this a sign of more ominous problems about to happen? At first I didn’t really even notice it until I was reading a recent article in Hemmings Classic Car about a ‘31 coupe and I noticed that car has the exact same leak in the exact same spot Is this a common failure point for the gasket?

[jg61hawk]

I see your join date and post numbers....Far be it from me as a new member with only 10 years playing with these birds...but I have a few years before with old cars....HA>>>if it ain't leaking it's empty. All these heads potentially seep. YES...Torque the head according to the RED BOOK sequence and do it often. Yes they drip oil under the transmission, yes they occasionally piss gasoline from whatever, yes they do weird stuff...they are all almost 100 years old.... drive the old gal and enjoy...don't look for "ominous" problems.

These are basically lawn mower engines..If you had a good mower in the day, you checked the head bolts every season, changed the plug and blade....changed the oil and off you went.
My friend, change the oil, check the head, READ THE OWNERS MANUAL for the generator gets some oil, the distributor likes a drink, and the rear banjo likes a good tightening...the Red Book has a maintenance schedule....don't over think the easy...but don't ignore the simple preventive.

[GPierce]

I had the same problem 7 years ago in the same location. I re-torqued the head and no more seepage.

[Thodge]

Must be a common enough problem then. I’ll retorque it and hope for the best then.

[Keith]

It is somewhat common, I have had the same seepage at the same spot on two or three A's and have seen it on many others. As mentioned in above posts not to worry and enjoy driving the A.

[Big hammer]

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Stop leak might help, drive on enjoy the ride !

[WHN]

Originally Posted by Big hammer

Stop leak might help, drive on enjoy the ride !

Every one I have owned has had seeping somewhere around the head at one point or another.

Big hammer’s recommendation has been my go to fix along with making sure the head was properly torqued.

Don’t fix something that may not be broken.

Enjoy your car.

[nkaminar]

Re torquing the head bolts is a maintenance thing. The sequence is not important. If it has not been done in a while, start at 45 foot-pounds, then 50, then the final 55 foot-pounds. You don't have to back the nuts off, but if you do, just do one at a time.

[brokenspoke]

I had the same thing happen, my friend suggested draining all the antifreeze out, retorque and refill with H2O, not further issues, antifreeze has smaller molecules is what he said.

[Bob Bidonde]

The seepage from your head gasket is a common occurrence. This is when you need to be concerned about seepage.

[J Franklin]

Add some powdered stop leak like Alumaseal or such. It will not clog the radiator if you follow the label and will stop the seep. But do check the head bolt torque.

[Thodge]

Thanks for the replies. I just wasn’t sure if this was something that can seep for 20 years without incident or if it was a leak for a week then completely blow kind of thing. Either way, I’d run it until it blew before I’d replace it.

[Banditorama]

Mine started seeping there when I started to actually drive mine. It sat for quite a while before I got my hands on it. The seepage started to spread outwards from that point until I noticed after a long drive that it would spit little water droplets out of the exhaust at idle.

I changed the head gasket a couple months ago and painted the engine while I had everything apart. So far, so good no leaks. I've read that some of the head gaskets are prone to delaminating and I think that's probably what was happening to mine