[Bruce Meyer]

The other day my race car was running a little off (about 2 tenths) and it wasnt running crisp. After closer inspection I noticed water bubbling out around head bolts. I figured it was a blown head gasket (1016 fel pro). I pulled the heads and the gaskets look perfect. Gasket looks like it was crushed properly and the torque on the nuts was good. Using ARP studs. Water was getting in to the motor as I noticed a little of that white spooge on the inside of valve cover. Any ideas?

[Bruce Meyer]

The other day my race car was running a little off (about 2 tenths) and it wasnt running crisp. After closer inspection I noticed water bubbling out around head bolts. I figured it was a blown head gasket (1016 fel pro). I pulled the heads and the gaskets look perfect. Gasket looks like it was crushed properly and the torque on the nuts was good. Using ARP studs. Water was getting in to the motor as I noticed a little of that white spooge on the inside of valve cover. Any ideas?

[lotzofn2o]

I had that problem with the 1016's, the gasket seperated in between the layers and water got in the motor. I switched to the mr. gaskets and have had no problems since.

[SLOW 77]

Make sure you don't have a crack in a cylinder wall.

[Bill Meyer]

I have had 3 seperate occurances with small amounts of water in the oil, giving the "milkshake" blues. Each time it has turned out to be very minute vertical cracks on the thrust side of the cylinder wall. The "fix" is to sleeve. So far, the 3 sleeves(Darton) have held.
This drove me crazy for a while, because the leak was intermittant, and I like you, suspected the 1016's.
Let's hope it's just condensation from the air in Phoenix, which hasn't been so dry this year! - Bill -

[Bruce Meyer]

Thanks guys. I found out the problem after I took the heads and the gaskets to my machinist. Water was leaking around the water ports at the gasket. The problem was my fault. Improper retourqing. He explained the proper way to me. Also he suggested using sealer around the water ports. He said its a common problem with alum heads on motors that only have 4 bolts around each cylinder.

[Old Man Taylor]

Bruce - What "proper way" did he describe to you for torquing the head bolts?

[Bruce Meyer]

Omt- He told me you must break the bolt loose then bring back up to the reading you desire. This must be done one bolt at a time. He also said this has to be done every 10-20 runs on a Pontiac w/alum heads. This is especially painful for me because I have to remove the steering column to get to the very back bolt on my 67 GTO.

[larry davis]

Never heard of it?

[Jeff V]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bruce Meyer:
Omt- He told me you must break the bolt loose then bring back up to the reading you desire. This must be done one bolt at a time. He also said this has to be done every 10-20 runs on a Pontiac w/alum heads. This is especially painful for me because I have to remove the steering column to get to the very back bolt on my 67 GTO. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm not trying to step on any toes,but I have run my engines for over a 100 runs at a time,never retorqued the aluminum heads and have had no head gasket failures.68cc Edelbrock,Butlers gasket,copper coated.Probably around 13 to 1 compression.I have even sprayed 150 hit of nitrous a number of times with no gasket problems.I would look elsewhere for the problem,I doubt it was your fault with the retorque.

[Jim Zeek]

I run 1016's on my 469 with Wenzler series 1 heads. Never retorqued them. No problems with gaskets. I use ARP head studs. Torque with plenty of oil.

[rumair]

we use sealer around the water ports, oil on the bolts at install, then re-torque after engine break-in. we've never loosened the bolts during the re-torque and i've never heard of that concept before.

[GTO]

Loosening and then re-torquing is the way to go. Or at least that's what I was told. If you don't loosen then you have to overcome the beakaway torque to tighten the nut. It's just like torquing the studs the first time around when you have to apply a constant pull on your torque wrench. If you stop torquing and then pull again you will need more torque just to break the nut loose resulting in an inaccurate reading. Next time when you re-torque and all seams OK mark your nut and head, then loosen and re-torque. You'll notice that the marks no longer line up. ... Just my 2 cents! ... Eric

[Old Man Taylor]

I have 350 runs on my E-head engine without ever retorquing the head bolts. However, my current CR is only 9.9:1. The gaskets are the old thick factory gaskets for the 455.

[Skip Fix]

I've also heard what GTO said about break away torque on the bolts. Static friction vs kinetic friction from physisc kind of thing.

[Lee]

I wrote about a similar problem a couple years back. Some 1016's DO NOT seal the water passages. Best I can guess, the "o-ring" inside the fireshield is too thick.

Installed the other "blue" FelPro gaskets, same heads/block/bolts/procedure and the leaks went away.