Hi,

I am currently restoring an old Faema E61 2 group machine, so far so good. When I started up the machine after years I discovered a small air leak in the level flange (see photo)
I use a teflon gasket to seal the boiler and the flange. Any tips how to close this small leak? It leaks around one of the bolts (see arrow on the picture).

Thanks!

Rik

I'd use an automotive "build a gasket" kit.
Buy the gasket paper, cut it and put in place.

Sounds like the water is creeping past the gasket. Since it has a teflon gasket you may be able to tighten it a bit, teflon is quite squishy and makes for a good gasket in this respect. I would gently tighten all the bolts and see what happens.

I'd test it and get it as hot as possible, cool down to cold and then tighten again.

If it still leaks then it's no biggie because you have a teflon gasket. The other benefit of teflon is that removing the old gasket is easy, even 1 day old paper gaskets make a right old mess. So if you have removed the boiler end plate, I would ensure the surfaces are clean (no old paper gasket) and hopefully dent free. Preferably use a new teflon gasket.

On one of my old machines the boiler flange had a lot of scratches and dents, I removed these with sandpaper. I think I started at 80grit then 220 then 400.

But first try tightening and see if that works.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the tip. It is also what the maintenance guys at my work suggested. So I gonna have a go with the sandpaper and will post the results when finished.

Meanwhile I experienced that it takes a long long time before you have temperature/pressure. I have a 2600 W element, maybe I should switch to 3700 W. At what pressure do you operate your 2 group E61?

Thanks,

Rik

make sure you tighten the bolts around the end cap in an alternating pattern. (like lugnuts on a car)
this will make sure it seats evenly.

Will do that John! Thx for the tips!

Rikkieb wrote:Hi Paul,

Thanks for the tip. It is also what the maintenance guys at my work suggested. So I gonna have a go with the sandpaper and will post the results when finished.

Meanwhile I experienced that it takes a long long time before you have temperature/pressure. I have a 2600 W element, maybe I should switch to 3700 W. At what pressure do you operate your 2 group E61?

Thanks,

Rik

If you are planning on keeping in on 24/7 then 2600W is fine. 3700W is quite massive really - but would help enormously if you plan on turning on/off everyday.

On all my E61's, I have many 1 groups and 2 groups, they are always around 1 bar. You can get some great performance from them if you take time to experiment with the thermosyphon restrictors 3mm, 2mm and 1mm in the back of the groups.

Paul

Paul_Pratt wrote:If you are planning on keeping in on 24/7 then 2600W is fine. 3700W is quite massive really - but would help enormously if you plan on turning on/off everyday.

On all my E61's, I have many 1 groups and 2 groups, they are always around 1 bar. You can get some great performance from them if you take time to experiment with the thermosyphon restrictors 3mm, 2mm and 1mm in the back of the groups.

Paul

Ah, sounds interesting. I do not use these restrictors at the moment, that's probably why I have only boiling water coming out of the groups at about 0,9-1 bar, which doesn't come down in temperature. I will order some of them to experiment. I found them on the Nuova Ricambi site:

http://www.nuovaricambi.it/ Go to Faema parts on page 13

I am not planning leaving the machine on 24/7 so 3700 W should be better for my purpose.

Rik

Hello Again!

Finally got my new 3700 W heating element. Have put some restrictors in the groupheads and used grindpaper do remove scratches/dents etc. from the boiler endplate en boiler surface, very smooth now. Looked good, Installed the endplate again (with the old gasket) and...it leaks again, but at another place!
So, I am thinking 2 ways now:

Buy a new gasket and try again or Buy a new gasket and a new boiler endplate.

What do you guys suggest? I am so far now with this project that I want to finish it good now, because it is a beautiful machine!

Regards,
Rik

Caveat lector, as I have no experience with teflon gaskets or Faema E61 boilers.

If you mark the spot at which the gasket leaks, take off the boiler endplate and then rotate the gasket to put the 'leak spot' in a different place, and if it leaks at the new spot, I'd blame the gasket.