A310V6 head gasket?

Travelling back from Colwyn Bay on Monday, the car broke down on the A55. In the morning, on the outward journey, the car was behaving normally as it was on the return until the breakdown occurred.

I was travelling at around the legal speed limit when the engine suddenly lost power. It carried on running, as I could hear it firing and spluttering, but eventually had to come to a standstill and call the breakdown services. Very kindly, John (mellowyellowa610) stopped to see if he could help but there was little to do other than wait for the breakdown truck. It was far too dangerous anyway as that part of the A55 doesn’t have a hard shoulder as such, only a two foot strip of tarmac, some gravel and a barrier about a car width from the 70 mph traffic.

I’d contacted the police because of the dangerous position of the car and a rolling roadblock soon arrived halting the traffic on both lanes until the car was attached and towed off to an exit that was close by. As it was getting late in the day the car was delivered to my house on Wednesday. Great service from the recovery company, LNS in St Asaph, who were given the work by the RAC. Anyway, to the point.

Yesterday I made some initial checks, fuel getting through, sparks at the plug leads, swapped distributor caps and rotor arms but it wouldn’t start although it turns over as normal without any odd noises. Today I did a compression test.

Cylinders 1 - 4 ranged from 145 – 170 psig, cylinder 5 was 50 psig and cylinder 6 was 80 psig. I repeated 5 and 6 again and achieved 60 and 90 psig respectively. From these figures I’m presuming that the head gasket has gone with the low pressures being on adjacent cylinders. Any other possibilities?

When I took the plugs out, number 5 plug was fouled with soft carbon deposits that bridged the electrodes but that just may be coincidental.

It looks as if I’ll need at least one head gasket and, presumably a timing cover and rocker cover gasket. I might have a rocker cover gasket though. Does anyone have a recommendation for a source of good quality gaskets? I have a pair of new head gaskets from Simon Auto that I didn’t use when I built the engine, as they looked inferior in some of the details to the Payen Curty gaskets that I used. Any suggestions for sources would be welcome.

Just when I thought the car was ready for all the events that will be happening soon.

Absolutely horrible bit of road to break down on. A proper hard shoulder would have been nice. Wanted to help push the car off the main road to safety (spend half my life pushing broken Lotus's) which wouldn't have been an issue had it been proper tarmac but it wasn't nice having lorries hurtling past and no proper hard shoulder..

Funnily enough, had an Elan recovered to us yesterday (head gasket failure) and the guy (Leigh) just happened to mention he just had a white Alpine on the back of his truck. Small world eh!

Hope you get it all sorted swiftly. Unfortunately I have no idea about A310 HG's. Sorry

Absolutely horrible bit of road to break down on. A proper hard shoulder would have been nice. Wanted to help push the car off the main road to safety (spend half my life pushing broken Lotus's) which wouldn't have been an issue had it been proper tarmac but it wasn't nice having lorries hurtling past and no proper hard shoulder..

Funnily enough, had an Elan recovered to us yesterday (head gasket failure) and the guy (Leigh) just happened to mention he just had a white Alpine on the back of his truck. Small world eh!

Could have been mine unless it was a Sunbeam. The guy that delivered mine on Wednesday was Toby I think.
Can't wait to start taking this engine apart.

Gasket failure would be odd after such a short time on NA but .....I'd suspect liner protrusion,suspect clamping at one end ?
Mister Auto are listing Elring and Payen for R30 and 310 .I don't have any in stock .Or you could try Andy Holt .He should.be able to get some although not listing much for 310 .
http://www.sportscarparts.fr/catalog/

I managed to get rocker cover gaskets for a GTA atmo from Renault. It was a few years ago, but might be worth a try.

Gasket failure would be odd after such a short time on NA but .....I'd suspect liner protrusion,suspect clamping at one end ?

That thought had gone through my mind because I've always had some reservations about the suitability of the paper cylinder liner shims. These had shown signs of settlement, a couple of years ago, when I removed the heads and rechecked the liner protrusions. If I find the liner protrusions are down and have to replace the shims where can I get the plastic shims from?

Mister Auto are listing Elring and Payen for R30 and 310 .I don't have any in stock .Or you could try Andy Holt .He should.be able to get some although not listing much for 310 .
http://www.sportscarparts.fr/catalog/

I'll give these a try, thanks.

I managed to get rocker cover gaskets for a GTA atmo from Renault. It was a few years ago, but might be worth a try.

I'll try the local Renault but they've not come up with much when I've asked previously although they've always been willing to try.

These folk sell full gasket kits...not clear on the HG brand ..maybe ask them...looks quite a good deal for everything... (If you are opening her up).
Someone on here may have experience...Paul Sage mentioned these guys to me a while back as as think he'd used them ..but can't recall what for..


https://www.franzose.de/en/Renault/Sonstige-Renault/Motordichtsaetze/

These folk sell full gasket kits...not clear on the HG brand ..maybe ask them...looks quite a good deal for everything... (If you are opening her up).
Someone on here may have experience...Paul Sage mentioned these guys to me a while back as as think he'd used them ..but can't recall what for..


https://www.franzose.de/en/Renault/Sonstige-Renault/Motordichtsaetze/

Thanks Dave,
I have looked at them previously but never bought anything from them. Does look a good deal if I have to do a full rebuild.

Just checked, it was 2005 that I got the rocker cover gaskets from Renault! Part numbers were 7910245656 (left) and 7910245655 (right). £40 the pair.

Just checked, it was 2005 that I got the rocker cover gaskets from Renault! Part numbers were 7910245656 (left) and 7910245655 (right). £40 the pair.

Thanks again Andy,
I have a copy of the A310 parts book and the part numbers for the A310 are slightly different but still worth a try with Renault.

Just checked, it was 2005 that I got the rocker cover gaskets from Renault! Part numbers were 7910245656 (left) and 7910245655 (right). £40 the pair.

Thanks again Andy,
I have a copy of the A310 parts book and the part numbers for the A310 are slightly different but still worth a try with Renault.

The part No's that Andy quotes are for the GTA D500, ...... Renault still supply them but now more expensive than £40 a pair ..... I checked just 4 weeks ago, so I got a set from Simon Auto's at 11.90 euros each.
They also have the A310 ones which are different to the GTA ones, at 15 95 euros each. The D500 ones seem to be of good quality although not fitted them yet. .

.

.

Just checked, it was 2005 that I got the rocker cover gaskets from Renault! Part numbers were 7910245656 (left) and 7910245655 (right). £40 the pair.

Thanks again Andy,
I have a copy of the A310 parts book and the part numbers for the A310 are slightly different but still worth a try with Renault.

The part No's that Andy quotes are for the GTA D500, ...... Renault still supply them but now more expensive than £40 a pair ..... I checked just 4 weeks ago, so I got a set from Simon Auto's at 11.90 euros each.
They also have the A310 ones which are different to the GTA ones, at 15 95 euros each. The D500 ones seem to be of good quality although not fitted them yet. .

I need to check but I might still have at least one Simon Auto rocker cover gasket from the kit I bought with the head gaskets that I didn't use. I possibly used the rocker cover gaskets from the Payen Curty set. I'll check, and thanks anyway.

.
Ok, reading again, you say suddenly lost power, 2 cylinders down and both on the same side...

Martin,
Appreciate your interest in rising to the technical challenge. There's a lot to answer there so I'll put something together from the recent experience and from my notes at the time of the engine build. Several trains of thought there plus another that I can throw in for good measure.
Thanks again.