Determining Reasons for Head Gasket Failures in Air Cooled Engines with a Simple Testing Methodology

Predicting head gasket failure or blowout can be a difficult proposition. Many factors contribute to head gasket failure in an engine, particularly in motorcycle and other air-cooled applications. While head gasket blowout could be blamed on improper manufacture or installation of the head gasket itself, there are other elements which may contribute markedly to such an outcome. Testing to determine the reasons for such failure can be frustrating, time-consuming, and expensive. However, a relatively simple methodology to determine the precise relationships involved in head gasket failure does exist. This same testing methodology is also able to point toward a relatively simple approach solution to cylinder head gasket blow outs.