When i constucted my engine. I used a composite(really a piece of metal surrounded by paper) head gasket. I am now reading you dont need sealant. Is it ok if i used sealant? Becuase i think i did something stupid cause i used blue RTV only because out of all the sealers i had it said pressure resistant. Is this stuff going to ruin the ability of the gasket. I torqued everything properly as the haynes manual stated. I'm just afraid i compromised the seal. Am i ok or do i need to pull the heads?

Its kinda late to even wonder this, i already installed the engine in the car. Yet it hasn't started and wont for atleast a week. But if i need to pull a head and buy new gaskets i need to know soon.

 

Rip the heads off and install them per manufacturers recommendations. You will not be sorry if you do it the right way. I never use sealer on head gaskets that call for none. I have not had failures.

 

do i have to rip the heads off. I kinda wondered into this idea after the fact that i installed the engine in the car. Would the sealer have spread around enough to make it ok? I really dont want to have to pull the heads and intake all over again.

 

I was always under the impression that the blue coloring was the sealer that felpro applied to the gasket. If you have an aluminum head and an iron block, they will expand and contract at different rates. The gasket allows for a certain amount of slipping action to occur. The sealer you applied can affect this. If the sealer holds too tightly, you will quickly blow a gasket.

 

the thing is, my gaskets didn't have those cool blue rubber strips. I had bough the summit SBC complete gasket set. And the heads were composite with none of the rubber stuff. So i figured Blue RTV wasn't exactly a bad thing.

 

Give it a try and post the results. Maybe luck will be on your side. Luck is NEVER on my side.

 

i'm just so afraid.

What should i do upon initial startup? I have tobreakin the new cam, and that takes 15 minutes of 1500+ rpm and it has to be different.

After that should i drain the oil and check for water?

Or after initial startup, turn it off and check all i can then restart and breakin the cam

PS: luck never seems to be on my side as well.

 

Just my 2 cents, a friend of mine is a very experienced machinist and he highly recommends NOT using a sealant unless you are using a shim, and then only copper-coat.
I'd be scared to run it with sealant on the head gasket.

 

i know you're not suspose to but i use the copper spray on every head gasket i install and so far have never had a failure and i've installed more than a few head gaskets.

 

That copper spray is awesome...I use it on all my gaskets...except for head gaskets I'd be too leary to run any type of sealer on head gaskets. I figure that if the company that makes the gasket says not to use any sealer...I'm not tempting fate.

 

gosh darn it. Looks like i need another complete gasket set. going to have to pull the intake and heads while its still in car.

How much harder is it then while it was out of the car?

Cant be too bad i guess, just pull em, and clean it up, slide a new gasket and put the heads back down with copper spray, and be done with it, right? Well after torquing the bolts down properly.

shouldn't be too hard, but its better to be safer then sorry right?

 

I'd fire it up and every couple of minutes pull the dipstick and look for any signs of water. At break in speed it would whip up and make a small foam or white film and be easy to detect before any damage would be done. If it holds great! You saved yourself a lot of work. If not, you'll be a lot more experienced at head R&R.

 

So when i fire the engine up the first time, keep checking the dipstick for water/foam. Once i see foam/water stop the engine and i'm guessing completely redo the head gaskets.

If i dont see foam/water during breakin, if its going to fail, when should i expect it to fail? in the first 500 miles? the first 30 hours? when? I guess i'll have to keep checking the water everytime i stop to go into a store or at a location, as well as get gas. Never can be too safe. nothing worse then wasting money and a perfectly good engine.

 

Why don't you find out who made the gaskets and give them a call. What have you got to loose? When you first start the engine run it between 2000 and 2500 rpm for cam brake in but keep your eye on the temp gauge. Try to keep the temp under 200*. If the temp gets up there just shut off the engine and waite for it to cool and fire it up again.

Auggie

 

summit's tech dept is closed on weekends.

I really would like to get the engine running soon. And a tear down is not that bad if its what i have todo to be safe. MY only thought about the sealer is that if the head was torqued down prtperly, which is was the sealer would spread so much as to let most of the gasket set in place.

Another complete gasket set is only like $50 shipped with intake and everything and it'll only take me a day to rip it apart again and set everything nicely. MY only part i hate is now instead of lifting those heavy heads onto an engine, i have to lift then onto an engine inside a car. Lots more fun there. but never can be too safe, well, to an extent. I think i'll just go ahead and place my order for gaskets and i'll be set.

i have aanother question now tho.

On my heads near some of the collant passages the surface wasn't completely flat nor was the reason leftover gasket material. So will copper gasket sealer fix this?

 

Nevemind the discussion on removing the heads and gasket. I have to remove the heads now. Hehe.

Shortly after posting a thread about compression ratios, i got a call from my local listing i had for parts. Guy came in an s10 a little later, with $400, we traded my trailer full of part for his $400.

So i called a guy and bought a set of old camel hump heads for $300, i should be picking them up this weekend. They're newly machines and have flow numbers i can enjoy and valve sizes i can accomplish things with.

 

Sometime things just work out. You should sleep good tonite.

Auggie

 

haha, nice, it worked out good for ya

just on the topic though, the engine that was put in my car (previous owner did a carb'd engine swap) was SCARY.....
The person who assembled the engine used a TON of the orange permatex stuff on the head gaskets....when we pulled the engine out and pulled off the heads, the crap was in the cooling holes and stuff......ick! i'm glad i'm rid of that engine! (Though i'm planning on building that engine up, 383 here we come!)