head stud leaks

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protosy

New member
so i started the truck up a couple of days after retorquing the heads and now i see that they are leaking water.... fantastic.

so the question is... what did i goober up?

i installed the studs using a liberal amount of thread sealant, torqued them all down in 4 "steps" using the prescribed torquing pattern. i then heat cycled the motor two times with 48 hour rests between cycles. after the second heat cycle and 48 hour wait, i retorqued them using the same pattern and saw no leaks.

and now they do. so wtf?

and the other question is.... do i have to remove all of them now and get new head gaskets and start over? or can i remove one at a time, apply new sealant and then just torque them down and call it a day?

for sure this is really frustrating considering i was about 2 hours from a first drive in four years. :x :cry:

chad
 
SY2932

SY2932

Administrator
Did you chase the threads with the appropriate tap? Had to replace a blown head gasket on my daily driven S10 about a year and a half ago. Plenty of resistance due to gunk and whatnot in the block. Cleaning it out has the dual purpose of not only allowing the sealant to do it's job but also make sure that you get accurate torque readings... Also, what kind of thread sealant did you use? As much as it hurts do to it all over again, I would start from scratch rather than risk an even bigger problem down the road just to save some $ :-?
 
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protosy

New member
the entire motor was rebuilt and the builder cleaned out the holes before returning the short block to me. so i know that was not the case. as for thread sealer i used the arp thread sealant crap or whatever they call it.

its a big enough pain in the butt to just retorque the stupid things in the first place considering you have to dissamble half of the effing motor to get to the bolts, but then to have it leak afterwords.... :fist:

and to think i will have to do it at least twice more.... this is getting old really quick.

what thread chaser should i use? 7x16 14? i have heard just using a tap will eat a bit of material from the block so i figure while i am at i could just buy the right tool and be done with it.

i am guessing re-use of the head gasket is a no-no.

chad
 
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protosy

New member
well all of it might be pointless. i drained the oil a little bit ago. yikes what a mess. no chunks or "debris", but it was pretty murky from the water getting churned in with the oil. i cut open the oil filter, no chunks in there, just the same crappy looking oil

i guess i will just chase the threads on at a time, apply more sealant and retorque the heads do a couple oil changes and hope for the best. it was not making any noises or anything when i shut it down and the oil pressure was always 60 psi or so. i am hoping i didnt loose a bearing

chad :-?
 
jwaller

jwaller

Evil Genius/SyTy Guru
arp thread sealer is the absoulte wrong thing to use. use whatever RTV floats your boat. red blue or black. thats what I use and never had a problem.


you can remove the offending studs 1 at a time and reseal/torque them to the final torque number. then wait a day for it to seal and then try it again.
 
jwaller

jwaller

Evil Genius/SyTy Guru
Do not gob them up bc the excess will squeeze out and it only has 1 place to go and thats in the wrong direction.

Only use just enough to cover about 3/4 of the threads in the stud.
 
chelo

chelo

filthy sy
Sorry to jump in here, but i have also just installed my heads and also used arp thread sealeant. I have torqued them down but have not started the engine. Will using the rtv should the torque still be to 74 lbs? thanks
 
jwaller

jwaller

Evil Genius/SyTy Guru
I've never had good luck with their(ARP) paste like white thread sealer. dunno why but RTV works best for me.
 
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sofaKINGfast

New member
We use K&W block sealer works real good.

water and K&W ,warm it up a couple of times ,then drain the system ,let it set overnight ,fill and good to go


We get that all the time with race engines, it works..... 8)
 
chelo

chelo

filthy sy
Could it be that arp never dries? It stays soft. My engine should be going in tommorow. So if i stay with arp would i really be in trouble? if i go with the rtv should i retorque? normally the rtv gets hard and would start to break. I think i should start over.
 
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protosy

New member
4C FED said:
jwaller said:
I've never had good luck with their(ARP) paste like white thread sealer. dunno why but RTV works best for me.
Click to expand...

Well dummy me went with the ARP sealer. :oops:
I must be lucky for a change or it has something to do with the thick Evan's coolant. No detectable leaks......yet.
Click to expand...

i hope you work out to be that lucky. i sure wasnt. i didnt have leaks for the first couple of heat cycles.....

maybe next weekend i will get around to ripping it apart and re-doing it :cry:

chad
 
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sofaKINGfast

New member
chelo said:
Could it be that arp never dries? It stays soft. My engine should be going in tommorow. So if i stay with arp would i really be in trouble? if i go with the rtv should i retorque? normally the rtv gets hard and would start to break. I think i should start over.
Click to expand...

It doesnt really dry it stays gummy
 
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