Flush/fill that migrated into blown head gasket and plugged up radiator. Read on

[Steve P.]

Sounds good, but your not out of the woods yet. The real test is putting it back together and NOT overheating.. 

Lets all cross our fingers...   

[70charginglizard]

sorry...getting ahead of myself here.


you mean I gotta put all that crap back on. time for some more bloody knuckles.

lol

[firefighter3931]

Sealed that head exhaust stud back into the head again real good yesterday.
Just got finished re-pressure testing it to 16 PSI.

Low and behold.....5 minutes later. 16 PSI and holding.

That sounds good....time to get her buttoned back up and see what you've got. `



Ron

[70charginglizard]

WOOOO HOOO.

All back together and running great!

NO MORE OVERHEAT> I AM SO HAPPY AND RELEAVED!

[8WHEELER]

Congrats Kelly   

Now you know why most of us start with the basics first or the 'easiest fix' first then go to the hard core repair.

I have had several leaks like that in 28yrs, but never had a problem like you had, just a little leak 

Dan

[70charginglizard]

Well hopefully this fixes it for a while. At least I'll know what to look for next time I see something like this happening.

Time to sit back, relax and have a nice ice cold one and enjoy the holidays thinking about my next project. One that isn't stressful but something cool and fun.

 

[firefighter3931]

WOOOO HOOO.

All back together and running great!

NO MORE OVERHEAT> I AM SO HAPPY AND RELEAVED!

Awesome ! Have a cold one for me while you're at it 


Ron

[70charginglizard]

Spoke to soon guys.

I'm screwed.

I guess I didn't know that when you use that pressure tester you had to tap it to get it to register a pressure loss when they are new.

After spending all that time last night testing it, not seeing it loose pressure and thinking it was fixed and putting it all back together.  I actually took it out for a drive today and it shot back up to 240 again so when I got it back and let it cool down. I re-tested the cooling system and after tapping the tester a bit, I noticed that it did actually start loosing pressure. I guess the tapping help to show it register a loss.
Started up the motor and it started to shoot up. So it must be a cracked head. 

Crap! I knew it was too good to be true.

Just to be sure I emptied some of the straight water I had in the radiator out and yep. it's got a very nasty smell and color tint to it. Redish tint. The smell is definately exhaust smell of some kind from some where.

This totally sucks! Especially since I put all those exhaust manifolds back on.

Im done for a while. To pissed off to deal with it now.

[firefighter3931]

Dang, sorry to hear that Kelly.  The reddish tint is probably a litle rust scale that the circulating water picked up.

Keep us posted when you decide to tear into it.


Ron

[70charginglizard]

All I can suspect is that the exhaust stud loosing it's sealant at that location must have been a result of the main problem. It must go deeper than just the stud somewhere is all I can think.

Any opinions?

I did notice that after it heated up on the drive yesterday it started puttering as I drove up the hill to the house Like I lost a cylinder or something. Could have just been a loose ignition wire... Hopefully
If I screwed the bottom end too now I am going to be real upset. As if I could get any worse.

Guess I know what I'll be doing AGAIN this weekend. 

[Steve P.]

Just keep your elbows off the top of the fenders. You sure don't want to add insult to injury...

[4402tuff4u]

Man that blows! That's frustrating bro, trying to troubleshoot the problem and realize it's the hardest option you were dealt. Take a deep breath and a recess and come back later on to tackle it. It Will still be there waiting for ya. 

[MorePwr]

I think this thread needs a little Positive Mental Attitude. Were talking about doing a set of heads....How many people only DREAM of having a car like this, to turn wrenches on?........It's starting to sound like someones dog got ran over.

Just go fix the dang thing and go burn some rubber! Yee Haaaa

[70charginglizard]

I think this thread needs a little Positive Mental Attitude. Were talking about doing a set of heads....How many people only DREAM of having a car like this, to turn wrenches on?........It's starting to sound like someones dog got ran over.

Just go fix the dang thing and go burn some rubber! Yee Haaaa

The only real downer here is the fact that I only got 4 good summers out of this motor before I had to deal with this. I expected more than that. We were so careful in building this motor as to not have to see something like this happen and it happened anyway.
It's just a bit disturbing.

I actually enjoy turning the wrenches on this beautiful ride but these VERY confusing overheating type of problems can be quite frustrating sometimes. You don't want to rush in and spend a bunch of money or do something that you don't need to. Waste of time and energy.

[firefighter3931]

Kelly, allthough you are convinced the head is cracked....don't discount the possibility of a failed head gasket. You'll have to tear into it to find out for sure but it might end up being simpler than you think. 


Ron

[Steve P.]

Kelly, allthough you are convinced the head is cracked....don't discount the possibility of a failed head gasket. You'll have to tear into it to find out for sure but it might end up being simpler than you think. 


Ron

  That's what I'm screamin...   Pull it apart and see what's what.

Look at it this way. You got 4 seasons  out of it. Some of us have blown up motors on the first blast down the track!!

[70charginglizard]

Its getting there.

Got the exhaust manifolds, intake/carb, valve covers, alternator out.

Next comes the heads.

[Steve P.]

Did you pull the drain plugs out from the sides of the block?? This will make sure all the water is out of the block.

Now get back out there...

[70charginglizard]

Got one of those out.

Thanks for the warning. I needed a shower this morning. 

The other one it is stripped and I can't get it out. Stupid square fastener plug.
Whos bright idea was that?

[70charginglizard]

6:40 pm and the heads are off!

I need a nap.

Here are a couple of pictures for you guys to ponder on. 1st one is the driver side gasket 2nd one is the passenger side.

I know the passenger side looks really wet but thats because I couldn't get that lower plug out before I pulled the head and water dumped out all over it. Bummer I know because now you don't know what was going on on the passenger side for sure.

Time for a nice hot shower and a cold beer. 

[Steve P.]

Hard to see much in pictures, but the lower coolant passage between 1 and 3 looks like it could be your culprit. You said something in an earlier post about red water. That's (I think), what I am seeing on the head gasket at that port. It should not make it to the cylinder sealing ring and it sure looks like it is to me..

I would look everything over very closely and take the heads in to a pro. engine shop.  If you don't have one in mind, ask around and check the shop out before hand. If the first place you go to is a dungeon, LEAVE..

I've been going through some tough times finding a GOOD shop around here. I didn't take my own advice and due to the shop being many miles away, I left my goodies and they are now full of sand and dirt.    A good machine shop will have really good machinery and be clean. Every engine and head  you see inside the shop should bagged if to keep the dust out. The shop I dropped my stuff at had everything bagged except for uncleaned stuff. When I went to pick my stuff up it was sitting in front of a 60" fan WITH NO BAG and he has a dirt driveway.. Needless to say I have pulled it all apart again and it's time for another total cleaning.. MORE $$$.........   

[70charginglizard]

I was very suspiciously looking at that myself.
Again, the heads look really awesome inside and out but since there now off it would be rediculous to think of just putting on a new head gasket only and putting it all together and crossing my fingers that nothing was cracked in the head so I am going to bring the heads in for a magnaflux inspection.

So, do you guys bring them into a machine shop as an assy for this inspection or do you disassassemble the valves, seals and springs first and then bring them in? I do have the tools to remove the valves and springs.

I've had some people tell me to just bring them in as an complete assy with the springs and valves in place so the machine shop can see what everything looked like with everything in place.

What do you all think I should do regarding that?

[Steve P.]

It's not much more for them to pull the heads apart. It's also easy to do yourself if you have a spring compressor. You said the motor was fresh 4 years ago. BUT,,,,, you also had a problem with heating up. I would take them in whole. don't try to clean them up. Just take them in and let the pro's look at what you have as they are. Also make sure they check for straight and flat. The pistons in the pics. look factory. I'm thinking not real high compression. Was the block decked in the rebuild?

Bring them your head gaskets also. They can teach you how to read them real quick.

[70charginglizard]

It's not much more for them to pull the heads apart. It's also easy to do yourself if you have a spring compressor. You said the motor was fresh 4 years ago. BUT,,,,, you also had a problem with heating up. I would take them in whole. don't try to clean them up. Just take them in and let the pro's look at what you have as they are. Also make sure they check for straight and flat. The pistons in the pics. look factory. I'm thinking not real high compression. Was the block decked in the rebuild?

Bring them your head gaskets also. They can teach you how to read them real quick.

Well Steve,
I can't remember specifically but I'm pretty sure I told them to assure that I wanted that deck surface checked for flushness and if it wasn't that I wanted it decked but I don't see anything on the receipt indicating that it was milled. I do remember checked it ourselves before we installed the heads with a straight edge to check for a straght and flush deck surface and it looked good at that time.
I have the receipt from the machine shop on the work done on the block and I don't see anything about decking the block. The only thing the receipt states about work performed is: Installed cam bearings, polish crankshaft, hone cylinders, main bearings, rod bearings, cam bearings, rings and thats it. Work was done on 11-29-01

It will be checked again before we put the heads back on I can assure you of that. I supose if it isnt straight at that time I'll have to pull the motor out hu? Great.

I'm attaching some close up's of that gasket rust issue between cylinder 1 and 3 for you Steve.

[resq302]

Those pics to me, look like the head gasket was bad causing the coolant to jump from the 1 to 3 cylinder.  The redish rust area looks like a v pattern.