New Type of K Series Head Gasket Available??

[UncleRon]

As some of you know I am looking to replace the tired old 100K miles K series engine on my S1 Elise. I am planning to fit my existing Kiwi Rog head onto a circa 40K miles replacement short K series engine over the winter.

Whilst surfing for parts, including a head gasket, I came across this article which claims that a new head gasket type will soon be available. The article claims that this new head gasket was primarily developed for the N series engine which was basically an improved K series and the N series suffered significantly less head gasket failures than the K apparently......

This is the article ;

Well guys and girls, after a lot of too-ing and fro-ing I've finally managed to get my hands on the parts used in the 'new' K Series engine (known as the N Series).
I can't find one instance of the N Series engine (as used in the MG7 and Roewe 750) suffering Head Gasket failure - so this should help our cars stay reliable in the long term.

The parts are:
- New Head Gasket (stronger version of the MLS design) as used by SAIC in all engine production
- Higher tensile head bolts to match the new gasket
- Stronger lower oil rail to lower torsional twisting of the block, and to deal with the increased clamping load of the new bolts

There's 3 versions of the kit - a Basic Kit, a Comprehensive Kit and an Ultimate Kit.
More details and pricing (starting from just £139.99!) here:
http://www.dmgrs.co.uk/collections/h...v-to-zua000530

Enjoy! It's taken a while, but we got there in the end.

I am a bit sceptical but still tempted to give the new head gasket kit a go during my rebuild.

What do you reckon ??

[woody]

It's been out for a few years now, think Rog has fitted a few.

[Lazydonkey]

Awwww man. Someone mentioned using a non oem gasket.

Rant coming in 3.......


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[UncleRon]

Mmm - Not quite sure where you are coming from here Lazydonkey......

I got a larger valve KR1 conversion done to my S1 K series head about 3 or 4 years ago by Kiwi Rog. At the time Rog advised me to get a Raceline head gasket as he reckoned they were as forgiving as any in case liner heights were not absolutely perfect. I have done 2 Frolics and a wad of trackddays on this setup now with no issues but my engine is just going through too much oil on track now so I want a lower mileage unit.

The Raceline gasket is certainly not OEM but I can't imagine many people knowing more about what head gasket is best to use on a K series whether it is standard head or one of his modified ones than Kiwi Rog??

I ran this by Craig at Murrays and I aslo plan to get back in touch with Kiwi Rog as to which head gasket he would recommend to use now out of all the options out there and whether this N series kit is worth considering.

[robin]

Sometimes discussions about K-series engines and head gaskets can get out of hand I don't think Donkey was voicing an opinion on the gasket but rather on the likely development of this thread

[UncleRon]

Ahhh, got you as I obviously didn't clock that - Thanks Robin!

I was actually hoping KingK might contibute a thought here........

[Lazydonkey]

Sometimes discussions about K-series engines and head gaskets can get out of hand I don't think Donkey was voicing an opinion on the gasket but rather on the likely development of this thread

Not a critisim of you Ron at all.....although you've now mentioned a non oem gasket AND you've said his name.

Somewhere an alarm has gone off and he'll be rushing to a PC as we speak.....

[Andy G]

Hey Ron - as discussed when we kiwi'd my race car (2007) I bought the Elise Parts kit and it was bullet proof.

Actually that engine is still going without fail, and I did a race season and 27 trackdays including Frolic and a week through the Alps with it!

Robin and Kiwi made the decisions

[UncleRon]

Mmm – Just found a posting over on Seloc by Kiwi Rog on his (shocking) findings so far on the ‘N’ series gasket kit ;

http://forums.seloc.org/viewthread.php?tid=397167

Maybe not, think I’ll leave that option and just call Rog………..

[KingK_series]

As some of you know I am looking to replace the tired old 100K miles K series engine on my S1 Elise. I am planning to fit my existing Kiwi Rog head onto a circa 40K miles replacement short K series engine over the winter.

Whilst surfing for parts, including a head gasket, I came across this article which claims that a new head gasket type will soon be available. The article claims that this new head gasket was primarily developed for the N series engine which was basically an improved K series and the N series suffered significantly less head gasket failures than the K apparently......

This is the article ;

Well guys and girls, after a lot of too-ing and fro-ing I've finally managed to get my hands on the parts used in the 'new' K Series engine (known as the N Series).
I can't find one instance of the N Series engine (as used in the MG7 and Roewe 750) suffering Head Gasket failure - so this should help our cars stay reliable in the long term.

The parts are:
- New Head Gasket (stronger version of the MLS design) as used by SAIC in all engine production
- Higher tensile head bolts to match the new gasket
- Stronger lower oil rail to lower torsional twisting of the block, and to deal with the increased clamping load of the new bolts

There's 3 versions of the kit - a Basic Kit, a Comprehensive Kit and an Ultimate Kit.
More details and pricing (starting from just £139.99!) here:
http://www.dmgrs.co.uk/collections/h...v-to-zua000530

Enjoy! It's taken a while, but we got there in the end.

I am a bit sceptical but still tempted to give the new head gasket kit a go during my rebuild.

What do you reckon ??

Don't - it will not work.


the N series engine is not a K series engine -

I once emailed all the posts from seloc to the ex Rover engineers working at Riccardo - for SAIIC on the N series, the reply came back loud and clear -= "it will not work"
and forwarded them privately to Kiwirog - why he did not believe the head of the team responsible for designing the N series I could not and never will understasnd.


however in brief the K series gasket is probably the best, most sophisticated gasket fitted to any production engine, it is not the bit that fails, therefore if you replace it with anything - a "Raceline " gasket or a costed down "N' series gasket, you are just building failure in.

- Roger does not possess a hardness tester, he is a very nice guy - I have a lot of time for him - but if you build an engine with a heat treated head that has got very hot and it's heat treatment is lost - it will fail, no matter what prayers you say or what gasket you use - it really is that simple.

[j2 lot]

Not a critisim of you Ron at all.....although you've now mentioned a non oem gasket AND you've said his name.

Somewhere an alarm has gone off and he'll be rushing to a PC as we speak.....

Took longer than expected , but there it is ........