TK Bedford, needs a hole in the head

So we finally did it... pulled the head off to fix the damned leak.

While it's off I've drilled the hole that the old blokes said they used to make when these things were overheating new trucks...

I can't quite believe the way they're plumbed though. The pump pushes water into the block and it must travel the full length of the cylinder jacket before passing through just two 20mm holes to get into the head...

Then it courses back through the head to the thermostat housing at the front. Along the way there are many big holes in the head and gasket, so the deck gets wet... but there's NO coolant flow between the head and block. What were they thinking..?

Now the screwy part is that the old head gasket has graduated holes along its length... and NO corresponding holes in the deck.

Just makes me want to drill holes in the block on general principal... like a normal engine... one not made by poms.

Has anyone got any ideas?

Cheers

And just to further confuse things...

The new gasket DOESNT have the graduated holes but there is one extra at the rear, which doesn't match anything. See the picture with the old gasket underneath with its graduated holes.

Curiouser & curiouser...

wrote:

Its not always pretty, but why not try a T piece in the top and bottom radiator hoses???? Quick cheap and easy. :whistle:

What He said ^^^ works well, dad use to do it to mini mokes works a treat and them mokes took a bit of heating you could buy hoses with a tee in them for the mokes you may have to drill a hole in the the thermostate to keep the heat flowing if you are in a cold climate

More pictures to make it more obvious... ?

There's water there if we drill for it.

Which makes me think the extra plumbing I've added will actually work to get heat out of the head. Worked a treat on my 398cid small block Ford V8.

Presently it looks like any coolant volume will just pour through the block and head out via the new bypass, robbing the head of flow...

With the 300 inch petrol motor we used to burn no 6 exhaust valve, learned that later motors had that coolant hole at the back , probably from getting a later model gasket.
David.

Obviously built for the cold climate and not suitable for ours. I have the opposite issue on the David Brown. You cannot run the engine at any speed with the radiator blind fully extended and although the water warms up it will not get warm enought to show on the temp gauge. You have to drive it to get that to happen. Then to add insult to injury the Poms put a cooling tube inside the head to direct the coolest water from the pump and is directed to the valve guide area to keep them cool. Many dont use the tube especially in the UK and not man y do out here either but I got my hands on a stainless steel home made verion and fitted it.