A Question Or Two About Liners

[Secretbuzzard]

First, mine appear to have a thickish graphite coating covering the area exposed to coolant. Is this normal? The pictures I see of a new set have no coating and are just bare metal.

 

I've searched this site and others, but no one seems to talk about which side of the head gasket goes down, Smooth or Folded?

 

Thanks for any insight you have!  John

 

[BlueTR3A-5EKT]

Smooth side down for me.   Which is what Triumph wrote.

The gasket is universal as the oil feed hole for the rockers is duplicated, so the gasket could be fitted either way up.

[Trumpy3]

Smooth side down.

Brian

[John Morrison]

……..and a warm welcome to our forum, it’s took you a while, but all

the better for hearing from you at last.

John.

[Secretbuzzard]

Thanks to everyone who responded! When I buy a different car I generally go to the better forums for that model and look through all the posts from day one. I want to know what are the most likely problems I'll run into and also who are the people on the forum with the best answers and advice. Usually I can get most of my questions solved in this way, but sometimes not. I did a search on "head gasket" figuring someone at sometime would have ask about fitment. No one apparently has (until now!) Thanks again, John

[stuart]

2 minutes ago, Secretbuzzard said:

Thanks to everyone who responded! When I buy a different car I generally go to the better forums for that model and look through all the posts from day one. I want to know what are the most likely problems I'll run into and also who are the people on the forum with the best answers and advice. Usually I can get most of my questions solved in this way, but sometimes not. I did a search on "head gasket" figuring someone at sometime would have ask about fitment. No one apparently has (until now!) Thanks again, John

You will find lots more answers to the head gasket question on here its just the search facility is poor and you often need to do an all forum search rather than a specific model one.

Stuart.

[mark canaday]

87mm or larger like the uprated head gasket. I plan on doing some 89mm soon

in my tr4(maybe).

MD

[PriceLes]

On 7/3/2026 at 7:58 AM, Secretbuzzard said:

First, mine appear to have a thickish graphite coating covering the area exposed to coolant. Is this normal? The pictures I see of a new set have no coating and are just bare metal.

 

I've searched this site and others, but no one seems to talk about which side of the head gasket goes down, Smooth or Folded?

 

Thanks for any insight you have!  John

 

The coating on the outside of the liners seems to vary, the 86mm 4 ring piston kit I removed had no coating, but the 89mm kit did.

This the County packaged big bore gasket at the top (Lucas brand perhaps or perhaps a Bastuck knock off) and the bottom one is the Bastuck which is embossed with TOP. 

The Bastuck block side is conjoined 1/2 - 3/4 , the County is not but one side is flatter and probably like the Bastuck the downside when the fire ring is crimped upward into the upper face at manufacture. (One source suggests the smoother side down is for thermal expansion between the block and head)

The County/Lucas gasket is odd in having the bridge removed between #2 and #3 cylinders and the push rod tunnel and hazard a guess any water to chamber breach would be at that location between the cylinders. 

Even though a composite gasket I will consider Hylomar 30M, Wellseal or even Pliobond 25 at non fire ring locations being a one fit gasket. (Pliobond is popular in the Norton community but ideally on copper gaskets)

The other option was using the Bastuck gasket with valve reliefs but move the cylinder head chamber away from the cylinder wall (Mill the stud holes oblong) instead of chamfering the liner top but that all seems a little over the top for a street engine.

 

[Secretbuzzard]

My liners are 86mm and I'll be using a stock copper sandwich head gasket. I thought maybe the graphite was to prevent corrosion buildup on the outside of the liners, or maybe to aid in heat transfer into the coolant. That's interesting about the difference between the Lucas and Bastuck gaskets. I wouldn't have had to pull the head if the PO had not filled the cooling system with water and then let the car sit for years not running. The water jacket in the block was almost completely filled with hard corrosion. Coolant was never able to circulate due to the hardened sludge.

[PriceLes]

The 86mm gaskets seem fairly standard, non crimped side to the block and crimped to the head. I am not recommending it but if I had used any copper gasket (solid or composite) it would have got VHT Copper Coat to both sides. 

The coating on the liners may very well be for corrosion resistance but only looking in another 20 years would tell if successful.

[Lebro]

I use the 86mm gasket (as in above photo) on my 87mm setup, it does cover the bores ok but would not go to 88mm.

I use Wellseal on both sides everywhere where sealing is required. All good after 5 years & approx 8K miles.

Bob

[Andy Moltu]

Sealant on copper gaskets.

Composite gaskets - bone dry with the contact surfaces on head and block scrupulously clean. The updated one sold by the TR shop and others has rings of sealant around all the waterways which presumably get squashed and heat cured. Additional sealant such as Wellseal won’t improve on that and may make it less effective. Works well with the 89mm liners.

The problems folk get with the larger bores are often the result of overzealous head work - removing too much of the head face around the valve. This may improve flow but potentially leaves the fire ring exposed in the bore. You then end up having to go to special gaskets.