Blown Head Gasket Or Bad Head?

[TSiWith17PSi]

Well here's my story I attempted to replace the head due to a failed tensioner causing some bent valves. Well I remove everything as usual then proceeded to install everything. I purchased a head that had a 3 angle valve job done, resurfaced, hot tanked, etc. so I figured all was good. I removed my ARP head studs in the torquing sequence then labled them as I removed them so I could put them back in the correct places. Well I also have a Cometic gasket that has about 500 miles of use on it so I decided to reuse it. I sprayed the gasket with copper spray on both sides generously. I then put the head gasket on, installed the head, intake manifold, and exhaust manifold as one piece. I used 30 wt. oil and torqued the head to 115 ft. lbs. (25, 50, 75, 100, 115 ft. lbs.) as told by ARP when using the 30 wt. oil option. I did use the torque sequence when doing this. Well I complete everything and begin to put coolant in my car then I notice that my coolant is leaking out as fast as I put it in. The leak is happening in one spot and seems to be coming from between the block and the head. I decided to do a compression test and I notice that compression is only around 90 psi in cylinder one and then I notice that cylinder 3 is gushing out water? I am completely confused any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dsm-onster]

I torqued down part of my wiring harness between my head and block once. Made that happen. It was terrible. ruined a new mitsu composite gasket. . .

 

[-TunedDSM-]

If you KNOW you torqued the ARP's down on the new head in proper sequence, then the head cannot possibly have been that severely warped. You would have seen it if coolant is really gushing out between the two of them that badly.

Did you check out the Cometic really good? Was the surface of the blcok and the head clean when you install it?
Did you use the ARP washers on every stud?


Did you check for flatness of the block? If the block and head are straight (or close to) and the Cometic is not damaged, then i am not sure what to say. Theres really 4 things to affect the headgasket's seal; 1) flatness of the head 2) flatness of the block 3) condition of the Cometic, and 4) Torque specs and sequences of the arp's.

 

[schemauer]

Don't EVER re-use a head gasket. If the head and block are true it's simply the gasket that's leaking.

 

[TSiWith17PSi]

Well, I fixed that current problem. Now it's a new day and I have a new problem. Well we got everything back together and compression tested the car (cold) the compression test came out like this: Cyl 1: 180 psi Cyl 2: 120 psi Cyl 3 180 psi Cyl 4: 180 psi. I decided not to trust the cold compression test and start the car since the timing was correct and everything else was done correctly. So when I start it I hear this loud tapping and im a bit confused on why the one cylinder reads 120 psi. Right before the timing belt jumped the car was smoking blue pretty bad. Although I thought it was smoking blue due to the turbo having a 4 AN line on it instead of a 3 AN. I lost the fitting that was suppose to be used with the turbo as well so I ended up trying another fitting that had a bigger hole for the oil to go through. Well when everything was ripped off I got the 3 AN line and the correct fitting for the turbo as directed by AMS. So my question is was the car smoking blue due to the extra oil burning through the turbo or is it possible that I may have a bad ring in cylinder 2? The motor was built with new Wiseco 9:1 pistons about 1k miles ago and hasnt been boosted past 12 psi. I also need any input on why I have the loud tapping noise. I reused the lifters and rockers from the old head when I put the new head on my car. The tapping does seem to be coming from the valve train. Would it be that the one or more of the lifters are stuck? or possibly bad? Any help is greatly appreciated..