ok well I had blown head gasket.. so both heads where redone with new gaskets.. heads where checked before. aluminum edelbrock heads. everythign was cleaned up.

I had a relative who is a mechanic put the heads & intake on for me. he torqued everything in the proper order in 3 increments. only prob isthat he only put thread sealer on the outside head bolts(exposed ones).. he didn't put anyon the ones that are covered by the intake.

I spoke to the original engine builder and he said I should be fine because I never ran a tap in the holes to compeltely clean the old sealer. he also said that when I had the valve covers off to adjust the valves while the engine was running I would have seen it seeping in.

I spoke to edelbrock and they more less said the same thing. If it's not leaking now it should be fine.

a few other people told me I hsould remove head bolts one at a time and put sealer and retorque to speck.

I'm just wondering what everyone elses's opinion is?

thanks

 

Do you like coolant in your oil? That's where it goes when (not if) it leaks up the bolts inside the valve cover.

Then put some sort of non-hardening sealer on the threads; either Permatex 300 (brown gooey gunk) or Loctite PST.

 

sooner or later it'll leak. not using sealer is pretty bad from someone who's suspose to be a mechanic.

 

he didn't think the inside bolts when into water jackets. the guy that orignally built the engine had put some and I didn't run a tap through the holes.. he says I should be alright and that it should leak from the beginning if it's going to leak. I could pull the valve cover on one side tomorrow and check.. should be obvious if it's leaking? or do you guys think I should pull them one at a time and use the non hardning gm stuff that I have?

btw I called edelbrock and the tech seems to think it should be fine. but I don't know I'm not an engine builder ..

thanks

 

Just be sure to retorwue the heads after a few running/cooling cycles. I found out the hard way it really needs to be done. Got through a few months racing but water started burning through the cyclinders really slowly and a little got in the oil. Caught it before serious issues arose, but when I tore the heads back apart, found 2 of the bolts under the valve covers on both sides were not within spec-1/4 turn of the 1/2" torque wrench, and most of the bolts on the bottom side-below the spark plugs where all loose-also 1/4 turn of the torque wrench.

Was also told by a couple racers before they even fire their new motors they will automatically install some Barrs leak just for precaution sake, some motorcylce manufacturers do this as common practice too. Once I went to the racers shop to see a tear down of his fragged motor, sure enough, hints of silver around the gasket where it seats against the bore of the block. So once I retorqued mine I went ahead and put some Barr's leak in it "just because"

 

normally if you are going to have a leak, you will have it in the first hour or 2 after its first started or during the first cool down from the first start.
you don't need to pull the valve covers to check to see if its leaking coolant into the motor, the color of the oil will tell you that, if it starts to look milky or like chocolate milk you have a leak, it doesn't take much water to change the color of the oil, 3 - 4 ounces of water in the oil is more than enough to notice a change.
if it hasn't started leaking by this time, its probably fine.
if you do decide to reseal the bolts, with aluminum heads do it after the motor has not been ran for atleast 12 hours & as you said, 1 bolt at a time. i would also go back & re-torque all of the bolts after 5 or 6 complete heat cycles & then recheck them again after about 500 miles are on it.
when i do a motor, i put some sealant around the top of the holes where the bolts go along with putting some on the threads.

 

yeah.. I'm kinda stuck in the middle here.. I'm very ticked that there was no sealant put in ..but I don't want to run into tearing half the engine appart again for a long time. I only put about 2000kms per season on it.. it's not winter driven. I'm just thinking when it sits over the winter it might start seeping through. I know one mechanic told me that the gm pipe sealant is really good. right now it's kinda 50/50 between people I've talk to. 1/2 say to leave it the other half say to remove one at a time and retorque each to 65ft/lbs. one guy told me torque em back to 70ft/lbs.. when I told edelbrock that they said do not go over the 65ft/lbs as it will gail the aluminum or something.. well I guess I'll wait t'ill morning adn see what other advice I get from here. If I'm going to pull one at a time it will be in the morning. I had it out around 9:00pm tonight so by 9:00am should be safe. I'm sure it wouldn't take me more than a few hours I just don't want to find out that by pulling them one at a time it screws something up by taking that load off the heads..

 

we'll I'm getting ready to go out and drain the coolant from the block.. do you guys think I 'm ok to remove one bolt at a time and retorque back to 65ft/lbs?

thanks

 

yeah do one bolt at a time and use some non hardening sealer. i like liquid teflon pipe sealer.

 

Don't exceed 65 ft-lbs; not from galling the aluminum, but because the head will warp and you will develop leaks between the cylinders.

 

ok.. I went out drained the coolant from the block on both sides. removed head bolts one at a time following the sequence. cleaned,put pipe sealer with teflon(gm stuff). retoqued to 65ft/lbs. I did all of them except the short ones on the outside as they where already installed with sealer. only the last one had a trace of coolant on the non threaded part. all the others where oily. I guess better be safe than sorry later though..

fired it up and let it warm up. drained the cheapy oil I had put in. put in my regular mobil 1 try synthetic 10w30..

all looks good.

 

I use rtv, the teflon sealer stuff looks like it didn't last too long after teardown.

 

Good Move!

I would have pull the bolts and applied sealer too.

Jake