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blown head gasket.



lucky for me when buying some stuff for the Packard at the auto store a few days ago I saw a compression tester adapter set that would allow me to use my compression tester on 10mm spark plug holes.

soo..... here are the cylinder numbers and corresponding compressions:

1. 100

2. 90

3. 90

4. 119

5. 119

6. 119

7. 120

8. 120

and of course my other new head gasket from Max Merritt doesn't line up with the studs just right for some reason. I guess a call to Max to exchange a better head gasket is in order.

or maybe your lifetime warranty applies to head gaskets Fred? something tells me no.

Any chance the new studs and nuts could have bottomed out and gave a false torque reading? No expert on blown gaskets but for it to have a true hole the numbers seem fairly high

cylinders 1, 2, and 3 have me a bit concerned. especially 2 and 3, considering the majority are hitting 120.

I will check the studs and nuts, but with those thick washers I put on there should not have been an issue with bottoming out.

I don't see why, on a brand new rebuilt motor, all of the cylinders shouldn't be within a couple of psi of each other like 4-8 are.

Stud nuts all loose. Completely loose between 2 and 3. All retorqued and running car now. Compression test was much better. 2 and 3 at 117 and number one is up to 118

HH, you nailed it. they weren't bottomed out...they were just not tight at all!

I ran the motor to get it good and hot. nothing coming from radiator cap now when revving motor. it was definitely blowing compression into the water jacket, thus blowing the coolant out the cap from the pressure in a non pressurized system.

still has some vapor, although not near as badly. I think it is whatever oil got into the coolant and it is burning maybe??? all I smell is coolant when I sniff it. see finger pic of what I get when I rub the inside of the radiator above the coolant level. I'm willing to bet that oil got in it from the nuts coming loose and probably some of whatever was in the block from it being cleaned. I'm also wiling to bet I got some water in the oil.

I never did see white smoke from the exhaust and when I torqued the nuts back down I turned the motor over with all of the spark plugs out and did not see any water vapor spew out.


I should probably drain the coolant, which sux since that evans coolant isn't cheap at all. but I may wait to till I hook up a temp gauge and watch things. if it runs normal, I wont drain it.

I will be draining the oil though as it was just break in oil anyways.

I will check the studs after a few more heat cycles as well. I went to 70ft lbs from the 65 that I was using.

moral of the story....tighten the damn stud nuts after they heat cycle a few times.

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Glad it turned out to be cheap and easy after all of the

Old cars be a right sometimes, as you saw in my 115 blog!

Sounds like all is well now, so time for a and then the joy of breaking it in.

Also, this may be the most emojis I've ever used on this forum, but it seems to fit the mood. Again, glad you got it figured out before you did a complete tear down.