Thread: Decking questions for Pat

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I'll take a look at the rocker studs. I thought I installed them with ARP liquid Teflon. Will pull some out and take a look see. Gotta retorque the heads anyway. Is it common for copper head gaskets to leak coolant out around the lower head bolt mating area prior to being retorqued?

Keith

ARP SEALER IS juNK ANY THING But THAT STUFF oil base and will wash off bolts/studs.the only heads studs i had leak was ones i used that crap. love there fasteners hate there sealer.when you cut the 030 off you must of recut the O rings if not that is one thing that going never be right . one thing to look at are the block front and back wall s that close in the lifter valley we call them china walls came from...the great wall of china.. if the intake hit on bottom of the block it will look like the gasket are sealing but stopping the intake sealing on the heads

Here I thought ARP sealer was good stuff. Damn! I only had the decks touched to clean them up, as I'm sure it had the majority of the decking being done in it's racing rebuild days. The engine shop, to the best of my knowledge cut the "O" rings after I had them clean up the decks. If my memory serves me right, I used black silicone to seal the china walls. When I took it apart many yrs. ago I think the silicone was about .040 thick. But, I will check all this stuff when I pull the top end off for inspection. Can I use the Cometic MLS head gaskets with a block that has been ringed. If so, do they make an .062 crushed height gasket? Since block has been decked so much, pistons stick out .020. Need .062 for a .042 quench. I'll also check the pushrod slots.
This motor runs good and has great throttle response. The boost referencing and rebase lining the carbs woke it up.

Keith

you would do is to drive copper wire in were the s steel wire is now and use any head gasket you want

I think we solved the major oil consumption problem. It was the intake rocker studs. They do protrude into the runner, and the threads were soaked with oil. We cleaned everything and used Form-A-Gasket. I will use Silicone when I rebuild it. Them damn copper head gaskets are leaking oil and coolant all over the place. I'm gonna retorque the heads, but I don't think it's gonna help. I also installed a second breather, she's got a little to much blow-by. Since I most likely will be pulling it down this winter, I'm gonna rering it too.

Keith

did you coat the hell out of the head gaskets with hylomar? take the head gasket heat them up till they turn color drop them in water that should make them dead soft or use copper wire in the Orings and use a MSL or felpro race head gasket

We didn't pull the whole motor down, just took the blower off and the valve train components. No, i didn't coat the head gaskets with Hylomar. I didn't think i needed it with the embossed SCE Titan gaskets I used. If I take the stainless wire out and put copper in, the block will need to be redecked?

Keith

never used the SCR titan gasket they look good on paper .here may be one of your problems that head gasket has a fire ring in it now and you have a O ring on the deck if this is the case the gasket can not over come both and you will be not sitting down flat as you need to be on the deck of the block and will leak....use copper in deck O rings use them gasket or keep the block O rings with S steel and go with plane copper head gasket .i would use Caution in thinking that cranking up head bolts will fix this

The SCE Titan gaskets I used didn't have the fire ring in them, that style is the newest line of copper head gaskets they offer. If I install copper wire in the groove, do I have to redeck the block?

Keith

Originally Posted by blwn31

The SCE Titan gaskets I used didn't have the fire ring in them, that style is the newest line of copper head gaskets they offer. If I install copper wire in the groove, do I have to redeck the block?

Keith

no the copper will give more were the s steel will not it the only thing you can do with the block .do you know how Hi the wire side out of the deck

I don't know the height of the stainless wire protruding out of the deck. That was the machine shops job. I know check everything, learning that lesson the hard way. That was probably the only thing I didn't check. I talked to the owner of a shop that I feel very comfortable with in the Bay Area and been in business for 54 yrs., recommends pounding copper wire into the o ring groove and resurfacing the decks and the heads to the correct finish for the Cometic MLS gaskets. He was also saying for me to spread the layers of the gasket edges, spray Hylomar around the edges to reduce the likeyhood of oil seepage. He also says they use a 2 step process on a CNC, for the block decks due to the different materials in order to achieve flatness across the entire deck and sleeves.

Keith

head gasket fire ring sits on the sleeves rest of the deck is there for the ride .i would just use copper and try a felpro race gasket the finsh on mls is smooth but i run my mill at a low feed rate and take more then two cuts.i have not lost a mls gasket as for a two step cut hard to say any time you cut hard steel the chips will get drag threw the alum deck . hard to say what machine he has i only know how i do it and what works for me .i would use copper not mill it.if you mill copper it very well hook up when milling it then you will have a $u#ken mess a flat file would be much better. if that will not work them mill the Orings off the deck .but you have a guy you trust then listen to him if he going to do the work . i posted how i would do the job right now with out seeing it .i think you can not afford to cut any more off the deck . your just helping him pay for is mill as this is all alum engine stuff wants to move but not as much as a iron block with alum heads

So you recommend just installing copper wire and flat filing. I would rather do that as long as it works. If I go to the machine shop, gonna cost me a good wad of cash to get it back.

Keith

not very long ago one of my customer ran in to much of the same deal he did not want the Orings and we just could not cut the deck with out getting in to alot of $$$ i told him the same thing use the copper or file the S steel still in the block file flat . if i would file the copper ? it would have to do with three things how hi it is sitting .were it is on the deck and were the fire ring is on the new head gasket.the make up of the gasket .

Boy you got me thinking! My head hurts...
I can't get my head around why you would remove the stainless ring and install copper? Easier to machine/deal with?

Keith