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Chatting with a guy that just put his 288 back together last weekend and thinks he has a coolant leak.

This picture is from when I worked on my 327, but is the correct side of the head gasket facing up? He said he put his in the other way. I put my new gasket in the way the old one was, but that doesn't make it correct! I know the head has been off my car several times during its life going right back to the early 60's.



The concern is this. After he assembled his engine, he ran it for a bit to seat the rings.....Not sure how long the engine ran. He pulled plugs to check compression and found #8 to be "pretty wet" with what he assumed was coolant. To be safe he drained the coolant and oil.

It seems to me that even if the head gasket was upside down it wouldn't let coolant leak into a cylinder. For coolant to leak into the cylinder wouldn't there need to be a pretty easy path, such as a damaged/bad head gasket, or something with the head or block? Maybe it just needs to be re-torqued?

Head was torqued as per the service manual.

I've suggested pressure testing the cooling system and/or a compression test to confirm there is a leak.

Thoughts?

Did he do 2 passes or just run through once?

On my V8 I had to do 2 passes.

If you get to bolt 36 then when you go back to 1 it's under torqued, then it's not torqued to spec.

The other day I had to tighten up a 5-bolt Ringfeder and I swear I needed like 7 passes before it was fully torqued down.

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Good questions. Not sure if he torqued in stages, or retorqued after the initial torquing. He didn't retorque after the engine had been warmed up and he discovered a wet plug, just drained the fluids.

He's pulled the head and will replace the gasket using some gasket spray as well.




He's considering pulling he valves while he has the head off, which seems like a good idea to me, even if it's just to clean them up and lap them. But like all old car projects it will probably be more than that! LOL

I always use aerosol Copper Coat on head gaskets but I would also never reuse one that has already been torqued. In my option, it can be sealed only once.

On my lawnmower the other day I decided to reuse a head gasket. Flathead engine. Sprayed it with silver spray paint. Put it back on and torqued down. Fire it up... BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG 😂

Yeah it didn't seal very well!

Got a new gasket set for it don't worry 😉

For what it's worth I put the gasket on with the name or part number upwards.

That is only to insure that any asymmetry in the area of the valve pockets is covered. That is not the case with this particular gasket.

Would have been good to know a little more about what was on that plug. Was the car blowing white smoke? Were there bubbles in the radiator?