New guy here. I have an '89 780 Bertone with a B230F 4cyl turbo over 200K. I love the car but this will be the third head gasket in about a year and a half. WHY? All work was done correctly and the head was torn down and rebuilt by a professional who said the head was not damaged or warped. Will be going with an Elring set from FCP this time. Hoping you guys can help me troubleshoot.

 

Sounds like something in the cooling system isn't working properly.

 

New water pump, fairly new radiator. Temp would go half way and no more after second HG. Would a bad turbo blow gaskets? What about torquing? Manual says to torque 3 times - the last time all bolts go 90 degrees. I snapped one doing this so only torqued to about 100. One thing I did not do is retorque. Tried that last week (after gasket blew) and 2 or 3 were a tad loose.

 

You need to follow the torque specs to make sure it doesn't blow. If you have a problem with them breaking then buy new headbolts.

 

Always buy new head bolts after removing them. they have a "stretch" tolerance and truly can be torqued once. I've replaced a many heads on many different makes and models. All had new bolts and no returns.