1959 AEC Monarch

I kept a fleet of flathead Continentals going with black silastic on the headgaskets .....$4 a tube silastic beats all the costly sprays hands down .......One of the motors had a cracked head ,I took it to Accurate welding ,and they said the head was basically paper thin from corrosion,but welded the top and lower surfaces together .........The two partners of the business were notorious skinflints ,one of them so rich from cutting corners on everything ,when he retired ,him and his wife went on six month 'millionaire cruises' every year .

In the 70's and 80's I used it on all my head gaskets. Remember stirring the thick aluminium off the bottom of the tiny can to create almost a paste-like texture.
I still have a can but not opened for 30 years. Modern copper sealer looks the same but the flakes are yellow instead of silver.

After I sold the AEC ,I got a 505 motor from the technical college as scrap ....Never fitted in a truck ,it was just badly assembled by apprentices ,and would not turn over ..........some of the main caps were wrong way round ....still have it ,maybe someday Ill see a nice AEC with no motor.

Further reading... cracked bell housings were prevalent in the later tilt ergo cab models due to lack of gearbox supports. The 505 wasn't introduced until 1968 when the tilt cabs were established however by then the manufacturing machinery was getting past it's best and more manufacturing faults were creeping in. Export models had injector settings for more power. Lugging the motor made head gasket failure more likely. The height of the liner above the the block face was critical but rarely mentioned. Volvo had shims to place under the liner lip to achieve that.
Crank shaft dampers were fitted to some engine versions (higher revving) from 1958 but all had them by 1963, similarly with change from in line pump to CAV DPA rotary pump.

Th AECs had cast magnesium sumps and flywheel housings ,and very prone to cracking ..........I took mine to the place that made the Volvo alloy tanks ,and told the guy it was magnesium ......he pooh poohed the idea ,and welded it with aluminium10 silicon.....causing a ,mass of cracks ...........Howevah ,you could even then buy a cast steel top housing half that was unbreakable ....but cost more than the truck was worth.

You cant mistake the beautiful sound of the AEC engines .....pure musical note ...........modern crap with masses of clatters and bangs all the time are just BS ........I recall when the BCC tested the new Leyland Worldmaster against the Volvo B10 ....the horrid rattling noise of the Leyland echoed off all the buildings in Queen Street ,and ruled it it out then and there .........continuous breakdowns on test runs didnt help neither...the BCC never bought another Leyland.