Triumph Repair: waterleakage TR4 engine, level gauge, rear cylinders

Question
QUESTION: Dear Howard,

After rebuilding my TR4 engine with new liners, cylinderhead completely re done, I face water leakage between engine block and cyl.head on the spark plug side. The deck hight of the liners is within tolerance, a new gasket was fitted. Torgue was checked several times. Do you have a suggestion where I should find the cause?

ANSWER: Hi Ton,
It sounds like you checked everything. Head torque (100 ft lb to 105 ft lb). And check that the nuts are not running out of threads on the studs. Did you check the deck height of the liners at four points around the liners to see that there is not a problem on deck height right to left? (.003" to .005" all the way around) If all that was checked too, I would look for a different brand gasket. The one you have may not crush enough on the liners to be able to seal on the block.
Howard

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QUESTION: Hi Howard,

After re checking I noticed the deck height of the outer cylinders (1%264) are below spec. (less then 0,05mm)
Could this be the cause of the leakage and what is the remedy?
Thanks for your advice.(The gasket I used is original Stanpart)

Groet, Ton

ANSWER: Do you mean the front and rear cylinders have less dept in the grove then the center two? If so you first need to have the level of the top of the block checked with a level gauge. All automotive machine shops have one. If the top of the block was warped and it was resurfaced without recutting the groove (fly cut) then it is possible that the gasket ring at the front cylinder and rear cylinders are applying enough pressure at each end to not allow the head to seal well.
When checking each cylinder groove you first have to be 100% sure that the top of the block is checked with a level gauge and then check each cylinder's groove at four positions around the cylinder and that all match the factory specs. (.003" to .005")

If the head it flat and block is flat and all the cylinder grooves are correct, there is NO reason the gasket should leak.
Howard

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Howard, thanks again for good advice. I'll check the block again. Another mystery is that all pistons are nice and clean except for nr4. That one is completely black and greasy from oil. According to the machine shop there is something wrong with the piston rings. After refitting the piston nothing is wrong , it all looks good. What could be the cause? (the cylinderhead is completely done by a machine shop)

Groet, Ton

Answer
Explain "After refitting the piston nothing is wrong, it all looks good" Did you check ring end gap? and were any rings upside down?
Was that plug firing? and did you do a cylinder kill test?
However, none of this had anything to do with a coolant leak. EVERY machine shop no matter how good, makes mistakes so was the head checked with a straight edge AFTER the machine shop surfaced it?
ALL these things are important and must be checked after the best machine shop in the world finishes work.
Heads do not leak for no reason.
Howard