420A On the 3rd head gasket on a completely new re-build.

[Harleyoi]

Hello, and thank you for reading this, and or throwing your 2-cents my direction. It is much appreciated

Ok so like the title says, everything is new on this car 420a. My son and I fought getting it all together with a lot of help from awesome peeps on this site, thank you very much!!! However when we started it, I fought the PCV. Got help with that from here to, fixed it sounded great, but did not drive it. 2 days later we put the wheels on it to drive it, and the head gasket popped, oil, and water dumping out. It was was devastating considering this engine has been in the living room for 3 months slowly being put together. Now I'm a plumber, not a car mechanic. So I decided to take it to a cool shop in the hood. They said I had the timming correct, and didn't see why it would pop. Head went back to the machine shop, and they put it all together. I pick it up tonight, drive it home about ½ mile get out notice its leaking oil again. BAM, second head gasket. Did not over heat, so drove it back and they're gonna start again considering I've already paid them. I'm just curious if this may have happened to anyone else. 3rd times a charm I hope ha.

Block was re-done @a shop, second time for the head, transmission with 70k per the place I bought. I'd say it drove like 80-85% for the little bit I was able to drive.

Thanks again for any adive.

 

[Sirius1995]

So what headbolts you're using and what head gasket? And has coolant lines been cleaned after mixing liquids? And are you sure it's head gasket what breaks, how you determined that? And is there any mods as turbo etc on it?

 

[evil_eagletalon]

This doesnt make sense. Its pretty hard to blow a brand new head gasket. You would need to drive the car with the temperature gauge pegged for a WHILE.

Who torqued the head bolts? Was proper sequence followed?

You say oil and coolant dumping out? Of where? If its coming from in between the block and head then either the head bolts are loose, the block or head is warped or cracked or the head gasket is wrong or put on wrong.

We need more info. Maybe a video or pictures.

 

[Sirius1995]

composite and MLS head gaskets use different tightening sequence too btw..

my lucky guess is that either damaged cylinder head or block or not proper torque on bolts/studs, and if you have not cleaned the whole cooling and oil systems, there's gonna be a lot of sludge in radiator and coolant hoses and oil passages and you might think it just mixed fluids again

 

[Harleyoi]

composite and MLS head gaskets use different tightening sequence too btw..

my lucky guess is that either damaged cylinder head or block or not proper torque on bolts/studs, and if you have not cleaned the whole cooling and oil systems, there's gonna be a lot of sludge in radiator and coolant hoses and oil passages and you might think it just mixed fluids again

I should have been more specific as well, mybad. Thank you for your response. Radiator is new, all new hoses, no mods, no turbo, new head bolts, and I have the Haynes manual. The head bolts tighten down in a 4 step process, with the final step a ¼ turn more. I really followed the book well crossing all the t's, and i"s.

I got a DNJ gasket kit.

The block cost me 1200$ at the shop, the first cylinder head cost me 700$ from the machine shop, it when the second time to the machine shop they cleaned it up, and said it was good to go only charged me 100$, then on the second time it leaked again, however it was only leaking oil this time. The first gasket was leaking oil, and water. It was bad.

This doesnt make sense. Its pretty hard to blow a brand new head gasket. You would need to drive the car with the temperature gauge pegged for a WHILE.

Who torqued the head bolts? Was proper sequence followed?

You say oil and coolant dumping out? Of where? If its coming from in between the block and head then either the head bolts are loose, the block or head is warped or cracked or the head gasket is wrong or put on wrong.

We need more info. Maybe a video or pictures.

Oil coming out from behind the number 1 cylinder in the corner by the timmeing belt cover.
I took it back to shop last night, not able to get pictures or videos at the moment. Thabk you for your response, this is a good one.

Thats what I thought about the head gasket, its blowing my mind.

composite and MLS head gaskets use different tightening sequence too btw..

my lucky guess is that either damaged cylinder head or block or not proper torque on bolts/studs, and if you have not cleaned the whole cooling and oil systems, there's gonna be a lot of sludge in radiator and coolant hoses and oil passages and you might think it just mixed fluids again

I totally mixed fluids again. I had coolant in my oil. Totally sucked.

 

[Sirius1995]

I should have been more specific as well, mybad. Thank you for your response. Radiator is new, all new hoses, no mods, no turbo, new head bolts, and I have the Haynes manual. The head bolts tighten down in a 4 step process, with the final step a ¼ turn more. I really followed the book well crossing all the t's, and i"s.

I got a DNJ gasket kit.

The block cost me 1200$ at the shop, the first cylinder head cost me 700$ from the machine shop, it when the second time to the machine shop they cleaned it up, and said it was good to go only charged me 100$, then on the second time it leaked again, however it was only leaking oil this time. The first gasket was leaking oil, and water. It was bad.

Is it mls or composite gasket? Haynes manual only shows the one for composite if I remember correctly, in MLS head gasket you have different sequence and torque specs

But did you flush your systems?

You say it's leaking oil behind first cylinder, are you sure it comes between block and head that it's not rocker cover?

Also what's do e to the head to have it cost $700? Decking it down shouldn't cost more than $200, block I understand if they assembled it too

Take pictures of the head gasket and let's see what it tells us

 

[evil_eagletalon]

Im curious to see the gasket placed on block picture. And picture of gasket on head.

 

[Harleyoi]

Is it mls or composite gasket? Haynes manual only shows the one for composite if I remember correctly, in MLS head gasket you have different sequence and torque specs

But did you flush your systems?

You say it's leaking oil behind first cylinder, are you sure it comes between block and head that it's not rocker cover?

Also what's do e to the head to have it cost $700? Decking it down shouldn't cost more than $200, block I understand if they assembled it too

Take pictures of the head gasket and let's see what it tells us

I may have gotten a bad deal on the head. It was a resurfaced, refurbished from ebay. So I dont know much about It, other than it looked great, and the second time around at the shop they said it was fine.

But here is the update so far. I got to see the underside last night night while it was up in the air. Cool mechanic I'm working with. He showed me that it is not leaking from the head gasket. I guess I jumped the gun to wrong conclusions. But he did point out where the oil is coming from. On the bottom of the pan, by the oil pump. He isn't charging me for the oil pan gasket, as he said he should've caught that, witch is cool.

I clearly saw the whole back side of the block last night, and it was clean. So maybe I was just tripping. I appreciate the help, and will update again when I've got the car back.

 

[Harleyoi]

Im curious to see the gasket placed on block picture. And picture of gasket on head.

As of now the head is staying on, I got to see the underside last night, and it dry from above. It is leaking on the oil pan, on the back corner by the oil pump. Cool dude, so he isn't going to charge me for the pan gasket. As he should have caught that he said.

But if anything changes and the head does come off, I will definitely update. Thanks for chimming in!