It has been a while since I updated this as it has been very busy here and the Talon has been relentless in playing a game of chicken with a partout. ha!

The 2nd head gasket failed in the exact same way as the first. There is another thread discussing this here:
2 Cometic Head Gaskets Fail the Same Way - Ideas?

Basically, the way the head was lapped created a dip in the middle. There was a .005-.006" dip in the middle of the head. You could see from the imprint of the fire ring in the middle two cylinders that there was much less clamping pressure at the points of failure.

Unfortunately, the repaired head was not repaired correctly and the new seats were showing signs of bad wear. Powdered-metal seats were supposed to be installed but stock-replacement seats were installed. They are softer and the high EGTs combined with higher spring pressures/rpm had the exhaust valves pounding into them only after 600 miles.

Seeing how the head had already been cut 4 times it was time to just toss it and start over. The chambers were pretty small already and I wanted to lower the compression by going back to the stock 47cc chambers.

The guys at English Racing found me a decent core (almost near stock height, with maybe one light resurface) and did some mild porting in the bowls/dividers. I picked up a new set of valves and dropped it off at the machine shop. The machinist replaced the exhaust guides, did a valve job, enlarged the throat of the seats and blended it into the bowls, and surfaced it for an MLS gasket.

I prepped the block with 400/800 grit paper and the large lapping block from ER. This time I checked everything with a machinists edge. There was one orientation where I could fit a 0.0005" feeler but overall it was near-perfect. The head had one spot where i could fit the same feeler so both surfaces are VERY flat this time.

This time I went with the FelPro PermaTorque 1153-1 gasket. The head was torqued in 15lb increments: 20-35-50-65, then let it sit for about 15 minutes and went straight to 95lbs. I then put it through two heat cycles and let it cool completely before re-torqueing. Doing it this way, the nuts barely moved at all on the re-torque. Before, they would all take about an 1/8 turn!

Everything went together a couple weeks ago and I have been taking it easy as I am honestly growing tired of working on it.

It could sense that I about had enough and decided to break again! The new water pump started squealing 30 miles after I had everything back together! Not wanting to throw another NAPA china pump on it again I just put my old GMB Japan pump off my other motor on it and it has been fine.

I drove it up to Pacific Raceways this last weekend for a road-worthiness test and it performed flawlessly. Going up in the morning when it was cool it ran a constant 165-170F. Coming back going down the highway at 70mph, with 90F temps and the AC blasting on full, coolant temps stayed between 183F-190F. Not bad for a stock radiator 2g with a big FMIC! Ducting FTW.

It made the 300 mile round trip with no issues and managed 21mpg on E85.

Of course, the car was not content to let me enjoy it for the whole weekend. I was getting ready to take another short trip on Labor day and looked around the engine compartment and saw what looked like mud all over the front cover/suspension. The CV boot split and tossed all its grease everywhere!

The only place I could find an auto driver side axle was O'Reilly's so I picked one up quick until I can find another good OE one and got it back on the road.

I'm not sure what El Diablo Rojo has in store for me next.