okay, i tossed my swirl ports and nasty cam in favor of some healthy aftermarkets recently, installation with the heads went well (if you can call such a thing...well) only had minor bolt problems on the DRIVER side head. no matter, bought new bolts tossed on loctite and went to the passanger side, which went beautifully. I torqued all bolts to 65 ft lbs...in the proper order.

Installation with the cam went even better, since most of the motor was tore down, removal of the radiator and moving the a/c condensor out of the way took minutes.

oh btw this was on a (quasi recent, less than a year) remanufactured short block as well.

after putting the headers and the rest of the exhaust and doing the initial break in...about a week after that, it well umm sucks.

In short, the PASSANGER side leaks coolant, at least what I think is coolant, bad. it drips from the bottom bolts and burns on the exhaust, whichs smells disgusting. from what i can tell, it may be only a couple of the bolts.

this being the side that i had no problems with, its very disheartening. which is why I started this thread, more of an encouragement thread rather than "OMG WHATS THAT HELP ME PLEASE". At this point I'm ready to say f it and forget about it. So please lol encourage me to stick with it hah.

Instead of asking what I should do...should I..

A) F it, a little coolant leak never hurt, besides it'll go away if you dont think about it.
B) Remove coolant passage bolts, apply more loctite, and retighten.
C) Do all of the work over again, replace all of it, even though everything's new.
D) Retighten the bolts. If this doesnt work, do answer B.

on 2 serious notes, are the only bolts that go into coolant passages the bottom bolts? and is it possible for the bolts to loosen on initial start up? (and if so, see answer D) although i thought that didnt happen on newer gaskets..

on a bright note, the side that i HAD problems with, has .. no problems.

yet another note, im not noticing any white smoke in the exhaust out the pipe, i noticed it burned oil on initial startup, but the car was sitting for 4 months, with no oil in it, and not cranked, so i think the piston rings had to settle, it still burns in gear but its getting less. im hoping this a signature that the gasket should be ok. oil looks fine too, no coolant.

 

I'd say the first problem may be using Loctite. Thread sealant is what you should use, primarily the stuff w/ teflon. It helps overcome any abnormalities in the threads as well as give a more accurate torque reading.

Second is, are you sure it isn't an intake gasket leak? Antifreeze has a wonder ability to run around, over, and under things making it look like it's coming from areas it isn't. If the gasket is leaking near the top of the water jacket in the intake it can run all the way around to the headers using the head gasket as its path.

That's the first place I'd start.

BTW, what head gaskets did you use?

 

I have to concur on the use of loctite as being a no-no. ARP makes a special teflon sealant for head bolts. You need to use that or something similar. As far as your questions:

A) No, don't f* it, a leak is a leak
B) I would try this, one bolt at a time but using the right teflon sealant. Be prepared for answer C, however
C) Redoing everything correctly is the "right answer"
D) Don't waste your time just retightening bolts

Most of the holes go into coolant passages, so time to pull a valve cover and check for other leaks. The bolts shouldn't loosen after start up. You could have erroneous torque readings (not tight enough) due to the loctite, however. If it was my car I'd pull the top end off and start from scratch.

 

that would explain it if both sides were leaking, but the driver side isnt. and I used the same tube on all bolts. but the point is well taken, i will use a different sealer on the bolts.

on the 2nd i'm not 100% certain, ergo i saw coolant spurting out of side of block where the head meets the block, (mostly because...you cant SEE down there with all the crap in the way) after the engine was running, i crawled up underneath, the head was dry, like completely dry, no evidence at all. block and everything under it wet, head bolts were wet too, some were, some werent. I had originally thought it may have been a hose leak...but that was fine. However, I will check to be certain.

and i used fel-pro MLS gaskets, which felpro gets mixed opinions, but all and all i was impressed with my first hand inspection, although thatll change if my gasket is dead.

and lol i guess you guys dont enjoy my kind of sarcasm

i guess at this point if everything is still F'd, ill pull all the bolts and redo with better sealer. but its late now.

thanks for the replies.

 

You got lucky on one side

I enjoy a little sarcasm

 

If you've got coolant coming out from between the head and the block, then there's probably something not right besides not using thread sealant. Did you chase all the threads so that there's no leftover crud affecting your torque readings? Did you make certain the head and deck were absolutely clean? Did you check the head and deck for warpage with a straight edge?

 

nah no coolant from in-between, at least not to be seen, bolts were wet as i said, so i assumed there was where i should start.

i used a bottoming tap on the block holes, and yes the block and heads were absolutely clean. i did check the deck with a straight edge, it was fine, as i thought it would be..heh new block that never overheated. but i assumed the heads would be straight since they were brand new.

where do you guys get your sealant? my part stores are terrible, they have absolutely no selection. i went to advance, they had, green threadlocker, which is absolutely worthless, various RTV silicones, but the only thing that i felt was worthy was loctite.

how's this?

linky

 

I would use this:
pn# 100-9904

 

I agree, and futhermoore I dont think I could sleep at night untill I took that head off and reinstalled it. Pretty much the only thing thats gonna fix it. Plan out a day, take the head off clean the block and the head again and re-chase the bolt holes. Mabey double check the head and block for warpage and re-install, and happy days are here again.

 

of course, you are right. but i really, *really* REALLY dont want to take the head off again, that would mean tearing the intake off and pulleys and yeah, it was so depressing seeing the engine disassembled for so long that honestly seeing it running terrible would've been an improvement, let alone how awesome it ran. but since everything is new, im gonna gamble and redo the bolts, if it fails...well then, it fails and ill have to take the head off anyway.

hey lo-tec:

does that have a PN? the ARP website is pretty worthless.

but if i cant get the ARP sealer before this weekend, would that permatex stuff be cool?

 

Permatex is just fine.

 

great, I'll prolly tackle it this weekend, or maybe tomorrow if I have time, I'll keep you guys updated.

Thanks!

 

GOTTA chase all the head bolt threads in the block clean (and clean the threads on the bolts if you're reusing the old ones). You will never ever get an accurate torque reading if you don't, regardless of what you put on the threads and it may very well leak. Obviously, the block deck surface must be completely clean of old gasket material, debris, etc. Also, many head gaskets must be installed with the correct side facing up.

 

Im just getting into engine work and am not an expert, but couldnt you do a pressure test on the coolant system and watch for where its leaking?? At least if its leaking at just the intake you wont have to waste time and money(gaskets, etc.) to take the heads off.

 

The bolts are going to leak without sealant. Even if theyre somehow not leaking now it seems to me that it would still be a good idea to go back and redo everything.

 

everything was clean at the time of assembly, i intend to clean the threads to get rid of the loctite, however as i also said, i used a bottoming tap on the block before assembly. i just had a poor choice on sealants...more like poor selection but it will soon be rectified.

 

I redid all the bolts on the passanger side without taking off the head, and resealed. No more leaking.

For future reference, DONT use loctite, they will leak, use proper thread sealer such as the Permetex or ARP stuff mentioned above.

Thanks alot guys!

 

Did you go ahead and fix the other side? If not, you are planning on doing it, correct?

edit-BTW, I'm glad that the one side doesn't leak now, just wouldn't want you to have a probem down the road with the other side.

 

Well I'm not adding anything useful here but I guess I am lucky, I put my engine together four and a half years ago with nothing but a light coat of oil on the head bolts. I'd never put a SBC together and all the many diesels I work on for a living have blind bolt holes and use either oil or moly lube on the threads.

In any case, I'm glad you got it fixed without pulling it all back apart again.

 

I have the same problem. Today I noticed a rather large coolant drip from underneath the car and after a lot of frustrating searching I was sad to feel the block slimy with antifreeze. It seems to me that it may be leaking from the head as it has a rear waterjacket and my manifold does not. I used gaskets with a metal block off plate for the head, but apparently I messed something up when I did it so I'm off now to buy and install new manifold gaskets.

 

Pull the heads and intake and check everything again. Use the thread sealer on the bolts and not the loctite... Coolant will seap through the loctite...

 

i've never used any kind of thread sealer on the head bolts of any engine i've built.. never had any problems

Should i go visit the casino?

 

Yeah. I do plan on doing the other side, but not this weekend. Sometime this week though..

the other side should be much easier since the bolts are more accessible and removing the header is far simpler.

Yup, make sure you hit the roulette tables

 

This is a new post that I made for some dumb reason about the same subject as this. Take a look for me and tell me what you think. Thanks. https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...5004:thumbsup: