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Head gasket seepage after rebuild

1530 Views 36 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  arieskcar, 
J
So I recently rebuilt the head on my 86 SC T1 had the head and block resurfaced, new apex head gasket with the reinforced water jackets (Mopar not available at the time) and felpro head bolts, after running the car and idling I’m getting coolant seepage on the outside edges but disappears once car has been idling for 10 or so min. Bolts were torqued according to the book at 65ft + 1/4 turn more so i don’t know what’s going on or if this is kind of normal for a fresh rebuild and will go away after actually driving it for a while, this is also a Michigan car and pretty cold in the garage at initial start up in case that’s a factor. Thanks for the help in Advance guys!
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photos after warm up.
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No coolant in oil or vice versa, head bolts did match, ran 11mm tap through all holes and blew out before reassembly. Have not pressure tested cooling system but I’m also not loosing any coolant, reservoir is still full. Was thinking of doing a once over on the head bolts at 90ft-lbs once motors back to room temp but with them being TTY bolts wasn’t sure if that was safe or not. I have a heater running but still only gets to about 40° in here so wasn’t sure if that was a factor or not cause once the motor is warmed up the seepage stops completely.
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arieskcar said:
Never used copper spray or anything on these engines. The Apex gasket is already tacky if that's what u used.
Also the water neck is a O-ring shouldn't be using any sealant unless the surface is pitted?
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arieskcar said:
Never used copper spray or anything on these engines. The Apex gasket is already tacky if that's what u used.
Also the water neck is a O-ring shouldn't be using any sealant unless the surface is pitted?
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It is an Apex gasket but the surface was not tacky to the touch and I’ve seen a lot of recommendations on here to spray any head gasket with the copper sealant unless it’s a cometic one, and no the water neck is a reinforced copper seal not an o-ring, and no there were no pits both the head and block had been resurfaced.
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Dr. Johny Dodge said:
View attachment 284785



note the long openings in the head beside each combustion chamber

they match the little round holes in the gasket

being the block has the same long openings, can you see why those metal rings in the gasket would cause you to have a sealing issue ?
especially if all those dots are dimples in the gasket surface

and yes the little passage holes in the gasket for those water passages are correct..but the rest of the gasket design..isn't
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this is the picture of the felpro one, same dimples i believe they’re just pressing marks from where the material sandwiches together, the rings are reinforcements which is why it was recommended to me over the felpro one since the mopar one was and I believe still is unavailable at most places that use to carry them. I’ll be going over the bolts again today at 90ft-lbs with a better torque wrench and see if I have any loose.
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Looks like my issue was a faulty torque wrench, borrowed a Snap On one from our shop and set it to 90ft-lbs and got almost a half turn from every single bolt, I went with the apex gasket because of the extra reinforcements and recommendations by a lot of people on the site because of the lack of availability of the MP performance one so I was pretty confident it wasn’t a faulty gasket.
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Ambrosepiu said:
This situation does not look optimistic.
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Fixed after re-torquing head bolts to 90ft-lbs
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