All right, another head gasket at our 2015 CUP went and this time it was even the Cometic thin 2 layered one. Oddly enough, this one behaved especially "sneaky" as the leak did appear only with the fully heated engine under WOT what made the initial troubleshooting even more difficult as the earlier ones did start to leak pressure to the cooling system also at idle. And all that now despite the fact that I did even replace the OEM head bolts with proper hardened stud setup torquing the bolts to near 60nm with the hope that would keep the pressure adequate (head was also machined flat).
Did take contact with the local KTM dealer for new gaskets and got noted there are spare heads available at factory warehouse and these "might" be already the new 2017 model ones with a bridge at the exhaust side.
Did take contact with the local KTM dealer for new gaskets and got noted there are spare heads available at factory warehouse and these "might" be already the new 2017 model ones with a bridge at the exhaust side.
- Any experiences from members in here on how these 2017 and onward 390 engine heads do hold up the gaskets? Is this worth the investment to finally get these not blowing under track racing conditions for 2015 engine?
- I presume no changes have been made to the cylinder design itself at newer models, so it is only the head where the design is strengthened and at the cylinder end, there remains to be no matching bridge added like with the newer head?
