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The head gasked would seal the studs.

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Have any ideas Don?? Water is getting into the pan, but no white exhaust, so doesn't seem that it would be head gasket related. Pressure tests didn't reveal a leak, so I would guess a small internal crack somewhere in the block. Have you heard of issues like this being caused from changing valve guides?

I believe what he is talking about are the head studs they do go into the water. Yes you are to use Permatex No. 2 sealer on all of them then torque them. We used this Sealant a lot at Caterpillar on gasket joints like oil pans and front and rear housings . They say it sets up but does not get rock hard. When I got a few head studs from Max Merritt they said to use it as well. I had thought of this but since it had great compression on all 8 cylinders hot and cold I did not think it could get in a cylinder. Thanks for checking on Facebook.

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And as Don mentioned the gasket should seal around the studs. If there were a leak you would see it at a head nut. I had one that was a little leaky until I had retorqued the head a couple of times. I don't think these would be the source of your issue. Hopefully your pressure test will reveal the problem!

Some of the head studs go directly into the water jacket. When we rebuilt my dad's '38 Super engine we used sealant on all those.

We had to rebuild the engine twice because the first donor block we used (the original cracked) apparently had too much corrosion inside the water jacket that we were not aware of. When the machine shop bored the cylinders it ended up creating a weak spot in the cylinder wall. It was not visible or detectable. Upon first start up we found that one of the cylinders was not firing, and we found water when we took out the spark plug. Apparently the pressure from the piston blew out the weak spot in the wall and water quickly followed. Upon disassembly we found another spot under one of the valve seats that was thin enough to force water through. Bottom line was the block was trash and we had to source a new donor block.

I saw that you bored your cylinders so that's what came to my mind. But with your pressure testing I would think that a leak like we had would have shown up when you tested. Maybe a pinhole leak or crack in the valley under the valve seats? I would think that magnafluxing would show the problem areas.

Sorry I can't be more help.

-Kevin