Head issues

[6bolt_tsi]

What do you guys think? Well I have a top mounted GT42 w/ a bunch of other crap on my 1G talon and long story short, I got on the car and about 8500 rpms I hear a POP, sort of like detonation/timing. Well I baby the car home, which it seems to run just fine and I start pulling the spark plugs. The spark plug electrodes are dry and look the same, however the 0-ring/crush washers on all cylinders except for #4 are wet…crap. Well I do a compression test 1-3 cylinders and they are 150 (this is with Crower 280 cams) and cylinder #4 is 135…not good. I’m thinking I lifted the head or the ARP’s are loose right. After much shopping I find the correct tools I need. Eventually I start re-torquing the studs. Ya, there were a few studs that had about 1 to 1 ½ full turns. My question is, do you think it would be safe to drive the car again if the leak test when done, looks good? I’m going to check and see if cylinder #4 compression is any better after re-torquing the head. This was on 34psi and race gas.

 

[GSX93DSM]

I wouldn't drive it. Being at 8500rpm. I wouldn't take the chance just tighting the head studs down. If the stud was loose possibly your headgasket is cashed. Thats about 20psi lost. I would would tear it down if it was me. You do what you think is right.

 

[6bolt_tsi]

I wouldn't drive it. Being at 8500rpm. I wouldn't take the chance just tighting the head studs down. If the stud was loose possibly your headgasket is cashed. Thats about 20psi lost. I would would tear it down if it was me. You do what you think is right.

Thanks for the input and I definately know what the right thing to do is.......damn, but do I really want to? I guess I have no choice.

 

[motorboat]

Yeah I would pull the head off and check the headgasket. Thats weird for you to have to re-torque them

 

[6bolt_tsi]

Yeah I would pull the head off and check the headgasket. Thats weird for you to have to re-torque them

I think my ARP's stretched only because I drained the oil and it looked fine. Also, I didn't see any oil in my coolant...knock on wood!!!

 

[6bolt_tsi]

How many miles on them? I havent heard too many cases of them just stretching like that... Something had to give somewhere

Well I've used these studs in two different motors, so they have about 3-4K miles on them. However, I only re-torqued them once after the motor was built and that was @ 100 miles. Technically, these studs haven't been torqued for over 1K. Don't they have to be re-torqued after every 10-14 heat cycles? Well I'm going to do a leak down test in the next couple of days so hopefully that will tell me whether or not (hopefully not) the head gasket is gone.