Is this a blown head gasket ?

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mbaird

mbaird
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I blew a freeze plug a few weeks ago and decided to pull the engine so I could check for a blown head gasket.
Here is a pic of the head between #5 & 7.
651D8A84-D9FA-415A-B2A0-95DF393F65E9.jpeg
 
pic of the gasket ? should be obvious on the gasket
 
Have you been losing coolant up until you popped the core plug or any overheating and boiling in the radiator ? The radiator cap if working correctly should have dumped any pressure above 16 psi. Core plugs have been know to pop out for no other reason than failing.
 
The fire ring and all of the imprints around the water holes are intact. I don't see any evidence of a blown head gasket.
 
Yes fire ring looks good but that cylinder wall at the top looks funky like it had rust in it at one time.... or am I just seeing stuff?
 
I blew the freeze plug the first time I wound it up to 7k.

The head gaskets are Cometics so its hard to tell by looking at them .
image.jpg
image.jpg
 
Yes fire ring looks good but that cylinder wall at the top looks funky like it had rust in it at one time.... or am I just seeing stuff?

I see a bit of streaking in each one but no rust etc...
FB6E2D87-B549-474E-8E95-09F24F93DFE6.jpeg
 
My brother only uses Cometic head gaskets for the forumla racing engines he builds. He and recommend to put a small bead of high temp silicone around each of the water ports on the inner layers of the gasket and spray both sides of the gasket face with copper coat. Oh yeah, we’re talking about vintage high strung 10k RPM Cosworth DFV’s that were used in the 1970’s F1 cars... For a street motor they are over kill, a good ol Fel-Pro will be just fine...
 
It was on it's way.
What thickness are the cometics you're using ?
I'm the one guy who avoids using them.. though I have used them on one motor and so far so good. .080 thick to cure a too much compression issue.
 
I use them but I spray them with copper coat.

The first one I used was on a 400 Chevy SB .020 over, did not spray them.

Not much room between cyls. One leaked when it got hot about 230, the

guy that owned it never told me it got that hot till it was to late.

New gaskets and sprayed them, and a bigger rad fixed the problem.
 
What is that mark on the piston right against the cylinder? It's right in line with the wide scar in the cylinder. There's something goin on there. Looks like the corner of that piston is givin it up.
 
Make sure your coolant bypass is not blocked. It relieves pressure in the cooling system at high rpms....so that you do not blow out a freeze plug.
 
What is that mark on the piston right against the cylinder? It's right in line with the wide scar in the cylinder. There's something goin on there. Looks like the corner of that piston is givin it up.

That is coolant . I had just pulled the heads off . Those fine scratches on the wall concern me . Every cylinder has them in the same spot . Is that normal ?
 
That is coolant . I had just pulled the heads off . Those fine scratches on the wall concern me . Every cylinder has them in the same spot . Is that normal ?
That scoring concerns me too. Like RRR said, what is that chunky at the piston edge that corresponds to the large patch of scoring?
 
What is that mark on the piston right against the cylinder? It's right in line with the wide scar in the cylinder. There's something goin on there. Looks like the corner of that piston is givin it up.
could that be a wrist pin riding on the cylinder wall, I can't tell what angle the picture was taken
 
What is that mark on the piston right against the cylinder? It's right in line with the wide scar in the cylinder. There's something goin on there. Looks like the corner of that piston is givin it up.
It looks like a piston starting to go away because of detonation.
 
If it was leaking water into cylinder it will steam clean the piston top. Not happy with piston skirt marks. Like there was a bunch of piston clearance and piston slap or there is crap imbedded in the piston skirt.
 
Is the piston land lifted on the picture of the cylinder wall or is that just trash?
 
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