bad day on the madien voyage

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freshayr

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After one whole year of working on it.....I took it to a buddy who has a repair shop yesterday. He did a front end alinement on the 68 Brracuda and gave me a NYS inspection. Beautiful day here in NY so when he was done I took it out in the road for its madien voyage. It ran better than I expected and handled much better than I expected. I put about 50 miles on it and was living large. Today another friend came over to see it. I started it up and popped the hood and almost died. Liquid running down the passenger side front of the block starting at the head gasket. I am sick. This motor was broke in on the dyno and appeared to be tight. I've got less than 70 miles on the motor. Tomorrow I am going to put a torque wrench on the head bolts and cross my fingers. can somebody tell me the torque for the heads on a 340. ?
anybody have any words of encouragement?
 
Make sure its not coming from the exhuast/header bolt I think the outside bolts on the heads go in to the water ports, or the intake manifold.

You just don't see many head gasket problems on normally aspirated engines.
 
Keep your head up you'll and it will do fine. I know it's frustrating but remember you are the one working on it and it's still supposed to be fun. Sometimes is ok to take a breather and distract yourself to keep the emotions out of it. Last time I had a similar problem I wound up ripping the motor out almost literally, I was a wee bit pissed. And found out it was somthin that could of been fixed in about ten minutes just by looking and a 1/2 wrench. Keep a cool head and keep on the right track.
 
zhandfull said:
Make sure its not coming from the exhuast/header bolt I think the outside bolts on the heads go in to the water ports, or the intake manifold.

You just don't see many head gasket problems on normally aspirated engines.
Click to expand...
i know what you mean about the header bolt....it not that. The leak is comming right on the end where the head and block meet.
 
Here are some words of encouragement.

My friend and I worked for several years restoring his 72 Duster. Everything was PERFECT when we took it out for the first show. That is UNTIL the car started running hot. We had to stop several times. The show was about 75 miles from our hometown. We finally got the car back home and it was just a defective thermostat.

Funny thing is, I took a picture fo the car at that show and even the picture came out foggy. LOL

It will get better. Hang in there and good luck!!
 
freshayr

Like zhandfull said make sure it's not leaking at the front and aft exhaust bolts/studs on the heads. They will most likley leak unless you put RTV sealer on the threads at assembly. I know. Good luck and "keep em flying."

Dave C.
 
Freshayr,

Assuming you're using iron heads, the head bolt torque should be 95-100 ft.lbs. Also, what head gasket are you using? I've always used the blue teflon coated Felpro gaskets and have never had a failure. If you're using some of the newer MLS (multi-layered steel) type gaskets, they have been known to leak especially if everything was not exactly as they recommend in their installation instructions, such as the finish of the block, head, etc. Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Also, make sure it's not starting at the point where the head/intake/block all meet, and just running down the side. Also ,I think there is a freeze plug on the end of some heads. Take a break..it's only April..plenty of time to put down the tools, ignore it for a little while, and still have it ready for a summer of cruising.
 
What kind of head gaskets were used? My shops had a few problems with certain brands. The torque should 90-95 ft/lbs. Also if you have to pull the heads check out the deck surface, I've seen a few engines the the machine shop was in a hurry and milled the block too fast and the deck has little "steps" in it.
 
could it bee one of the freeze plugs?
had one of them starting to leak on a 318 and i was realy scared that it was a headgasket that had given up, but this whas on the rear of the engine but it realy looked and felt like it was the headgasket...
 
i've been out of town for a few days. I hope to speak with the engine builder today. I intend to find out what gasket he used and will also find out more about the machine work. i'll keep you posted. thanks.
 
I understand your frustration. I've been working on putting a 440 in my 65 dart for quite a while . When I finally got the first motor in and it had less power than the original 273, sputterd missed and nothing would help. I finally gave up and pulled the motor and built a new motor. I got the new motor in this last weekend, started it up, and water poured out of 2 of the exhaust manifold studs where someone had pulled out the studs and apparently stripped the holes. I figured no problem I will put a helicoil in and be done with it, unfortunatley they were the holes closest to the firewall even the smallest right angle drill wouldn't fit. Took me and a buddy a full day to assmeble the motor and get it in the car, I will tell you the frustration of those water leaks really had me questioning why I was doing this. So I took a couple days off, got a fresh perspective ripped down the motor, I had just put together & installed the helicoil's. Now the reason we do this. I got it running yesterday broke in the cam, no water leaks and everything is great. Drove around for about an hour today at highway speeds varying the RPMs with no problems. Nailed it once or twice and it has more power than I know what do with. Today I am happy and understand the time, money and frustration was all worth it, until tomorrow when the next thing breaks. Remember working on em is 1/2 the fun. I have a sense of pride knowing that all the work was done by me, and if it something does go wrong I can fix it (with a little help from this site). You've got a great resource with this web site! Keep your head up, read up on fixes post a bunch of questions then get a wrench dig in and fix it.
 
I dont know if anybody has mentioned this or not but a couple years ago my brother put together a 340 that had the same problem and it turned out to be the heads and block had been cut so many times for diffeent rebuilds the heads bolts were too long and bottomed out but acted like they were torqued. The leakage only happened after a few heat cycles. I think he stuck washers under them to test his theory and figured it out that way. Hang in there and the end result will be worth it
 
Head lifting is a common problem if either the block and/or the heads have been cut/milled. I took .130" off total between my head and block on my slant six. Had to washer the heads bolts because the compression was lifting the head (10.5:1). Make sure, if this IS the case, use ONLY Grade 8 washers... I used some designed for a Chebbie 350 if I remember correctly. You can usually find them at PepBoys or NAPA... good luck with it and keep your head straight! I spent 3 years rebuilding my car, and then spent 6 months tracking down and fixing leaks... this also included pulling the motor 1000 miles after break-in to reseal the oil pan (and now it's leaking AGAIN!)......
 
well it might not be as bad as I thought. My engine builder came over last night and we couldn't get it to leak. He presurized the radiator and we ran the car in the garage (the weather was too bad to drive it) We couldn't get it to leak....but when we first looked at it, a new drop had formed and this time it looked like it came from the intake. We retorqued the manifold and are going to keep our eye on it. I don't really understand how it could be so bad before and now we can't even see it but maybe i need to get the motro really warmed up like the first time.
 
You know you brought this on yourself...You know Mopars are very clever...Your car probably saw your signature "Almost done..correction, almost ready to sell it..." and thought..."hum...if my owner is ready to sell me, I'll show him..."
 
Dead End Kid said:
You know you brought this on yourself...You know Mopars are very clever...Your car probably saw your signature "Almost done..correction, almost ready to sell it..." and thought..."hum...if my owner is ready to sell me, I'll show him..."
Click to expand...

:) i changed my signature the day I started this thread.
 
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