Dang water sleeve leak

[cfelton]

After trying a number of very good sealants and alot of patience I gave up on the idea of the press fit ever holding. Every time after a few weeks it always started to leak. So I snatched it out AGAIN and proceded to tap threads into my head. The cast iron head only has a 3/16 in. thick water jacket and is barely enough to get a thread and a half taped into it. I cut a 1in. nipple down to 1 1/4 in. long leaving about 3 threads and welded a thick washer onto it where the threads tapered out. I used a die grinder with a sanding pad to prepare the mating surface on the head. I wrapped the threads with teflon tape and cut a gasket to fit over the pipe nipple and to fit up to the washer, sealing it to the mating surface on the head. It works like a hollow drain plug on an oil pan. It worked PERFECT! Sealed great with no leaks and I dont have to worry about it blowing out EVER!! Problem solved!

[spareparts]

[garagenc]

Good to hear "C", something I was going to suggest is: sometimes when you heat and cool something a couple of times it actually shrinks and does not resume the exact size it was new. What we used to do at the Navy yard was freeze the already small piece (using dry ice or a freeze coupling) this is a wrap that has a liquid in it that is cooled by a machine. We would wrap these around pipe that we couldn't drain. It will freeze hyd oil solid. We would freeze the piece and then install it in the hole looose and then put heat to it and from being froze and then heated it would swell and seal and normally not leak again.

But anyway glad to hear you got it.