ok.. some of you probably read my previous posts about my edelbrock performer setup with 8000km 's eating coolant. turned out to be cyl #7 after pressurizing the cooling system I figure that out. finished taking the intake & ds head off tonight. of course I'm an amateur so I studied the gasket for a while. it almost looks like the metal ringon that cyl has a bit of a sharp bend the ring doesn't seem to be as wide at this one spot. it's where it goes around a coolant passage. being amateur I don't know if this could be the culprit. I'll bring the head & gasket down to my local chev dealership tomorrow(I do a lot of pc work for them).. so they always do me favours. they have a really good engine guy there that apparantly can usually tell by looking at the gasket.

I've had a few people tell me if it's the gasket that the other side should be done as well.. anyone have opinions on this one?


the other thing.. when I removed the intake some coolant leaked in the lifter valley. is this ok? I haven't drained the oil yet either. should I flush it out by pouring oil in the lifter valey? I tried to absorbe some of it with paper towel. there's a few drops sitting on the lifters as well.


thanks in advance..
waiting for some good advice..

 

its good your getting the head & gasket looked at by someone who knows what to look for. you will need to check the block with a straight edge & a feeler gage, they should be able to show you
how & what to look for.

on doing the other gasket, you will get answers of both yes & no. if its a low mileage motor that i know & i am sure there are no problems on that side, & i know what head gasket was used so both sides match, & that its a quality gasket that & the head that was pulled off does not need to be resurfaced, i don't pull it, but, if i don't know any one of those things or the pulled head needs a resurface then the other head gets pulled also.

on the coolant in the valley, i dump some denatured or rubbing alcohol (i prefer alcohol as it somewhat absorbs water) into the valley to flush it into the pan & then drain the old oil out. after
it's back together i put a quart of marvel mystery oil in with the new motor oil & let the motor idle for about an hour & then do a normal oil change. anti-freeze is bad for the bearings.

 

thanks Denn

about the gasket thing. it looks like felpro 7733pt2 was used. which is stock gasket for the engine. but it has edelbrock aluminum heads. edelbrock recommends felpro 1003. I guess I should do both as this may have caused the failure.

 

Well, actually, the FelPro gasket is NOT stock for that engine. The GM 12553160 may be the STOCK gasket. When you're at the dealership having the head inspected, you may want to look at the gaskets they have.