Thread: Sbc 350 vortec heads coolant out of cylinder 6 exhaust.

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Originally Posted by DennyW

Can you rotate the engine CCwise? Have you tried it at the flywheel ? Either way ? Any give at all ?

Tried CW and CCW. It doesn't budge. I drove the car 600 miles before this. I haven't tried at the flywheel but when I tried to start the car my external ford soleniod got extremely hot.

Originally Posted by Grillhands

So I flushed the engine with 12qts of oil and took the car around for a nice drive about 2 days ago.

By your statement above, I'm assuming coolant got in your oil and circulated with the oil through the motor. Bearing surfaces and coolant do not get along, before I tried to spin the motor anymore, I would pull the pan and check the bearings.

Originally Posted by 36 sedan

By your statement above, I'm assuming coolant got in your oil and circulated with the oil through the motor. Bearing surfaces and coolant do not get along, before I tried to spin the motor anymore, I would pull the pan and check the bearings.

When the head gasket went I only drove it about 1/8 mile at 20mph. I made sure the oil circulated to sweep out any coolant. I guess it wasnt enough. I just cant wrap my head around that I drove it about 5 miles and nothing happened.

Looks to me like you didn't drain the block before removing the head so the fact that there is antifreeze in the cylinder is false info looking for a cause

Sounds like the gasket wasn't the only problem. Perhaps a bad cylinder or head crack.?.?

Bottom of piston 4 came apart.

I'm glad you pulled the pan. Now, you need to discover what caused the piston skirt to come apart. In your picture of the cylinder, is it a shadow making the clearance around the piston appearing to be substantial?

I think it the way my light was angled. I checked clearance for the rings and they were within spec.

The little tab that hangs down is what broke

The bottom part of your piston is the skirt. Was this bored and new pistons, or just new rings? Was the cylinder taper measured? Looking at your cylinder picture again, #2 & #4 piston tops appear cleaner than #6 & #8, was your gasket blown between 2 & 4? Cylinder wash and hydraulics (water in the cylinder) can break pistons. You need to find what caused the piston to break before you put it back together or you'll be doing it again.

Originally Posted by 36 sedan

The bottom part of your piston is the skirt. Was this bored and new pistons, or just new rings? Was the cylinder taper measured? Looking at your cylinder picture again, #2 & #4 piston tops appear cleaner than #6 & #8, was your gasket blown between 2 & 4? Cylinder wash and hydraulics (water in the cylinder) can break pistons. You need to find what caused the piston to break before you put it back together or you'll be doing it again.

Block wasnt bored but it was honed. I reused my old pistons and just changed bearings. The old gasket shows it gave out between 6 and 8. I didn't taper though. I'm picking up a remanufactured jasper hopefully this week. I'm gonna swap my 906 heads over and maybe my cam if it's not damaged. I'll slowly tear this one down to see where its jammed. Thanks for the help everyone. This site is a gem! If I missed anything that I should check let me know please.

So are the heads modified in any way????? milled, ported? And did you use any sealer on the head bolts?/ If the heads have been ported( and those port walls look thinner than normal and close to the bottom) the porter could of went thru the wall near the bolt boss that is between the two ports which will cause a pretty drastic coolant leak, especially if the bolt threads into block aren't properly sealed---happens a lot with Chevys because the block deck bolt holes go thre and aren't blind like most other manufactures---------

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

So are the heads modified in any way????? milled, ported? And did you use any sealer on the head bolts?/ If the heads have been ported( and those port walls look thinner than normal and close to the bottom) the porter could of went thru the wall near the bolt boss that is between the two ports which will cause a pretty drastic coolant leak, especially if the bolt threads into block aren't properly sealed---happens a lot with Chevys because the block deck bolt holes go thre and aren't blind like most other manufactures---------

The heads have a mild port. They are not milled. I use Indian head on the arp head bolts. I had these heads on another engine and it didn't give me any problems. The heads maybe have 1k miles on them.

I think maybe you also have a problem with your compression guage-maybe filled with the coolant?????????There isn't any way that those pistons on stock heads/block would have that much compression

I tore down the engine and a piece of the side skirt came falling out. Once it dropped everything spun freely. To my surprise there are no marks or scuffs on the cylinder walls what so ever. I was expecting some really nice gouges but its smooth like when I first honed it. I'm glad the block is not ruined however I'm still gonna pick up the jasper.