Would retoquing solve my head gasket problem?

[Aaron Silidker]

See topic for my question. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[bill32]

Exactly what is your headgasket problem? Retorquing the head bolts used to be done to engines after they when through several heat and cool cycles, but that is not done with modern engines. If your problem is water leaking into cylinders or leaking exhaust gases between cylinders, you need to pull the heads and find the source of the problem.

[Big-Foot]

Aaron, unfortunately once a headgasket is blown, the damage cannot be reversed. You may be able to slow the leakage by retorqueing, but you would also stand a chance at hurting the block or heads by continued running that way..

It's another afternoon shot in the butt along with the cost of the gaskets - but once you do it one-more-time, it should be the last time as long as you tend to the potential lean issue as well.
Running on unleaded premium, your plugs should remain clean rather than having a brown tinge to them.
What carb are you running and how is it jetted?

[Max_Thompson]

Aaron a bunch of my friends are waiting to hear from Michigan right now for admissions.

Good luck with the engine problem. Trust me once the car is sorted out, it is well worth the trouble putting it together and fixing all of the problems.

[Aaron Silidker]

The carb is a barry grant road demon 625, jetted stock out of the box with the idle screws and basic settings adjusted. The plugs were damn near clean with a slight tint of brown. What are the best head gaskets?

Max, tell them if they get in go here, it is AMAZING. Wayyyyy better than I ever thought college could be, michigan is the best place ever.

[Ozona]

Originally posted by Aaron SIlidker:
Max, tell them if they get in go here, it is AMAZING. Wayyyyy better than I ever thought college could be, michigan is the best place ever.

Something tells me Aaron found the co-eds. [img]graemlins/evil.gif[/img]

[Big-Foot]

Originally posted by Aaron SIlidker:
The carb is a barry grant road demon 625, jetted stock out of the box with the idle screws and basic settings adjusted. The plugs were damn near clean with a slight tint of brown. What are the best head gaskets?

Until you get all of the bugs worked out of this car, I would suggest going up 2 jet sizes in both the primary and secondary. It is far better to run a little rich than it is to run a little lean. You may even find some dirt or other foreign material that is blocking or restricting a jet when you take it apart.

The Felpro 1011 head gaskets are good ones.
I am curious what the brown tint is on your plugs. How many miles are on the engine now? Any oil consumption that you have noticed?

[Aaron Silidker]

The engine has about 600 miles on it. I have no idea what the tint is and it doesnt burn oil at all, but it leaks some [img]tongue.gif[/img] . I will bump up the jet sizes next time I do gaskets.

[StephenP]

Aaron,

With the problems you have had with the engine and the builder. I would suggest that you check the block and the heads for hi/lo spots. al ittle rough in the milling department could explain a lot.

I seem to recall that you have played this gasket game a couple of times so you might also look at the head bolts as potential suspects as well. A bad thread or so can give you proper torque reading without the desired mating surface pressure.

Both of these are pretty easy when you already have the heads off for the gaskets anyway. BTW - These ideas are from my very old days of steam turbine powered generators and debugging gasket problems on them.

Good luck with finals as you will need it with them, the car on the other hand is just a problem that does have an answer. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[img]graemlins/green.gif[/img]

[Aaron Silidker]

The heads and block have a smooth surfact. Bolts are ARP, and threads were chased.

[MJN]

When you have the heads off the car it's a real good idea to make sure the deck and head surfaces are flat (as well as cut with the correct surface finish). Use a precision straight edge and a 0.002" feeler gauge to measure end to end and diagonally across both the heads and the block. If you have more than 0.002" out of flatness consider having the surfaces machined. I kept blowing head gaskets, even after having the heads surfaced, until I realised that my block deck on one side was not flat. It was off corner to corner by about 0.006", kind of twisted. I had no luck keeping a gasket intact for more than a few months even with FelPro WireLoc gaskets until I had the block machined. If you're lucky you may find that your heads need surfacing if like me it's the block then it's a lot more work to correct.

[paul burchett]

What about the block? Maybe others have suggested it, and I missed it. Everyone has mentioned gaskets, bolts, sealants, head surface flatness, deck flatness, etc. If there is a small crack into a water passage in the block, none of that stuff matters. I know it is an unpleasant possibility. It just seems that having the same problem with two different sets of head gaskets might means it ain't the gaskets. Has this engine ever ran normally, even for a short period of time, with either set of gaskets installed? When you removed the heads were there any marks/stains on the block or heads that would indicate the spot where hot exhaust gases were leaking between the gasket and the block/head surface?