u need to retorque ARP head studs, but not factory head bolts. thats what i remember.

 

I asked Mase about the SCE gasket when I redid my HG. He said he never uses them, as they are terrible at sealing liquids in. He said they are great at keeping combustion in the chambers, but crappy at sealing water/oil passanges.

Looks like a blown HG to me. Now that you have your coolant system bled, leave it alone for a few days (do not top it off). If level drops and you get cooling issues, HG is done for.

If your IMG was leaking, you would see coolant colored staining in the runners of the intake manifold.

And you do not need to retorqur OEM head bolts unless they are new. If you reused the old ones, they are pre-stretched.

John

 

Free water injection kit, just be sure to keep the radiator full

 

I was thinking the same, maybe I should switch to a water/meth mixture in the cooling system?

 

You do NOT need to re-torque ARP headstuds if it was done correctly the first time.

Also, you do not want to burn coolant for very long if its leaking into a cylinder. It pits the cylinder head bowls. I have a little bit of pitting just from the little bit of leakage I had and short amount of time it ran that way.

 

He's not even sure it's leaking....

 

How does that make sense? if coolant is getting into the combustion chamber by means of a crappy seal from the HG, then that cylinder also has to be not sealing very well for combustion purposes.

 

When your motor is COLD pop the radiator cap. Stand by the radiator and have someone start the car. If you have air blow and coolant blow out you have a blown HG. You are getting compression into your coolant system.

Do this when its COLD.

 

Um because the SCE gasket is ringed around the combustion chamber...
I'm not sure if/why Mase would say this. When I asked him about the SCE copper gasket two months ago he hadn't heard of it and I actually had to send him a link to their website to check out. He basically said he doesn't like thicker gaskets in general because of off boost characteristics, but I have been driving mine with a 2mm SCE for the past 2300 miles and it feels identical to stock as far as driveability. Oh yes, my coolant levels have been steady with no leaking also.

 

I would run a leakdown test with the radiator topped off and uncapped.
Test each cylinder at TDC with the rest of the spark plugs in place and test it one by one. If you see the slightest bubbles in the coolant and/or the coolant rising, then your HG is blown.

The bubbles can be very subtle and very small almost not noticeable but it still indicates a blwon gasket. Make sure not to move the car or lean on the car to keep the coolant as stable as possible. This will defenitely tell you if it's blown or not.