International Lancia Forums

1969 Berlina GTE. Thanks to all of you for the info about wiper motors and also about getting my newly rebuilt engine running properly by putting the distributor in the correct way round...Duuh. The engine runs nicely now, especially after I discovered the servo was knackered and plugged the hose to it (temporarily).
I now discover that even though it is running nicely....the oil on the dipstick is a sort of milky colour - this happened after I ran it for maybe 20 minutes whilst standing. I had checked the thermostat before I put it all back together. I read extensively on the importance of following the torquing down procedure EXACTLY as given in the workshop manual and also other places on the internet including this. I did exactly as proscribed. Trouble is the water passages in the original cylinder head were quite badly corroded due to standing and even after a light skim did not look too brilliant. In fact before I used this head I bought another 1300 HF head dated 1973 but chose not to use it because I would lose the mechanical tacho. . So I am thinking that I might have to use the 1300 HF head because the edges of the waterways are all clearly defined and not corroded. My question is ..can I use a series 2 HF head on a series 1 engine (with my saloon camshafts) and obviously lose the mechanical tachometer function.? Secondly, the only other reason I can think of for gasket failure is ...poor gasket quality --- mine said Athena on the packaging and looked okay...but who knows.. Should I try again with a reputable gasket from eg Omicron? Any thoughts much appreciated.

I'm not sure I understand what head you're using, and what head you're inquiring about when you use the term "1300 HF head" or "series 2 HF". The S1 1.3 HF used an 818.342 head, which was unique to the 1.3 HF (818.342) engine. And there was no S2 1.3 HF; the only S2 HF was the 1600 HF (818.540 head). But I can't imagine you're talking about using a 1600 head. So I think your "series 2 HF" head must be a standard S2 1300 head.

But to answer your more general questions, the 1300 engines 818.302 [edit] or 818.303 (either S1 or S2) use essentially the same head, except, as you note, for the tach drive. Other than the tach drive, they should be interchangeable. And you're right--you can get the same effect from actual gasket failure, or a warped or corroded block deck or head, or an improperly torqued head. Given your description, we can probably rule out the last, but it could be either of the first two.

The S2 heads have the tacho drive hole blanked off with threaded plug. If you take that out I imagine you can still use the mechanical drive as the rest is the same I think. Never tried it myself though.

With Fulvias you can seal the head better with 12.9 steel cap bolts (retaining the thick washer). These can be touqued down in stages to 25ftlb. Omicorn has these or you should be abvle to source locally with a sample of your bolt.

When you take the head off you may see where the failure point is andcan address it. I actually had a failure of one of the cam cap bolts breaking into the waterway giving the same milky problem. The head gasket was not to blame.

Tim

Note that the S2 berlina had an S2 818.302 engine.

Early S2 heads had the tacho hole plugged. Later ones did not have the hole drilled. It is perfectly possible to drill a hole in an S2 head and cut the thread..