Blownramair

Y'all,

Okay, I yanked the heads off both sides. The right bank appears to be fine. The left side seem to not appear right. What do you guys think? The pic of the head - has a bunch of black smoke by where the exhaust valve is. Do you guys think this is what my problem is? Everyone said i blew a head gasket, but from looking at the heads and gaskets - i dont see anything obviously that comes out and says, "omg, that's it". I need some help! Thank y'all

The picks are labeled if you put your cursor over the picture.

Jay

Blownramair

More pictures...

2001-WS6

Tough to read the gaskets in these pics because of the lighting.

Check the tops of the pistons and look for the ones that are more burnt (coolant combustion residue). There may have been some weeping of coolant going on as the motor was heating up. Then check the seals on the gaskets for those cylinders.

What you'll be looking for is a small blow by path along the seal by one of the coolant passages. I've even seen it were it's actually between the layers on a Commetic gasket rather that the top or bottom of the gasket. Were talking a pathway that could be smaller than the width of a pen.

The reason a I say that's the area to look at is that you were seeing the coolant system get preasurized by exhaust gas blow by rather than seeing coolant in the oil.

Rick

kp

iTrader: (34)

If you look at the thread MM posted about head gaskets recently I posted some pics of my heads and gaskets i just pulled off. I never burned any coolent I could see but there obviously some combustion getting into the water holes since it was pushing some water out the overflow during a pass.

What was your car doing that you thought it blew a gasket?

TwnTrboCE

iTrader: (43)

The gasket on the left side was shot. Look at the head and you can see the black path leading to the bottom side of the head. On 3 cylinders. It is so wide that it went into the cooling passages. What do you tq the heads to? The gaskets have a very weird pattern on them. Does your heads or block surface have a rough feel to them?

hellbents10

iTrader: (10)

Weather the gaskets are avtually blown or not you were moving combustion gasses out of the side, you can see were it made it to the coolant passeges too. Stock heads, what torque and so forth.

Blownramair

Thanks for all your responses guys. I did not actually put this engine together. I believe Billy at W2W put it together. This is an Ls6 engine and heads... I'm going to have Kurt and W2W look at them and give me his two cents...

The reason I felt the head gaskets blew was - and there was a thread about 4 weeks ago on this - that my engine reached 240degrees coming down the return road. The radiator cap literally blew off the car and anitfreeze was all over the engine. What you said KP - is what i'm leading to - exhaust pressure got into the water holes causing the radiator cap to blow? That black smoke around the bore of the heads is not good. The heads are fine - they are flat, smooth and not warped.

What should i torque the head bolts down to now? They are ARP bolts.

Thanks a bunch y'all!!!

Jayson

kp

iTrader: (34)

I torqued mine down to 80 this time, was 75 the last time. Dont reaally think its going to make much of a difference though. Honestly if I didnt have water blowing out the cap on a couple passes I never would have even thought about pulling the heads but since the car didnt do that until th last dozen or so passes I figured it was time. Car ran fine last time out, never ran hot or anything like that. I never blew the cap off the car, but it would blow some coolent out around the cap since it couldnt get in the bottle quick enough.

TwnTrboCE

iTrader: (43)

How old or how many passes on these? How much power? How much timing and boost? What fuel? All these things decide how long the gaskets will live.
If your tune and fueling are in check and these have some time on them. Just slap on a new set and go.

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

What kind are they? The gas ported Cometics that folks talked about a while ago had mixed results, they leaked between the cylinders for some people.

2001-WS6

Gaskets look like standard Cometics?

I think he was just cracking the 9.8/9.9s if I remember correctly and this is the first season on the combo.

He needs to get his own tuning software though to start adjusting the tune for the cold air that's just rolled in up here this week. We'll probably be racing in the high 60s for the next four weeks from the feel of things this evening.

Rick

Blownramair

Rick is right! I'm just crackin the 9.80s. A/C and heat is finally coming out. I had the old GM-MLS gaskets on the car from 2 years ago. I'm switching to the Felpro-MLS & ARP bolts.

I believe I have about 15-18 full passes on the car and a few hours of engine dyno time. Car made just over 850HP at the crank @7300 @ 16psi on a D1sc. I'm using MS109 fuel. Kurk at vector tuned the car - so i'm confident it's as good and safe as it should be. I know i need to invest in a computer system - that will come soon.

Is their a better radiator cap to use? Sounds stupid, but I should ask. Also, do you guys feel my pistons are okay? I know theres only one way to find out. The back to spark plugs on the left side were horrible.

Thanks again for the help. Hopefully I'll get this thing running before the season ends.

Jay

KissMySSo1

iTrader: (2)

def was pushing some water. looks like the the head bolts/studs had diffrent torque from front to back. torque the **** out of the new gaskets. when the new ones go on.

MIGHTYMOUSE

iTrader: (59)

your compression might be too high for that octane and HP? that aint the deep dish pistons W2W normally runs with boost.

i would put factory mls gaskets on, stock ls2 are only 30 bux each

i did my last ones to 90 with copper gasket spray

Blownramair

I believe the compression is at 9:1. The pistons are forged JE, oliver rods, stock ls1 rockers, etc. So if im using ls6 heads & arp bolts, what should i torque the heads down to? 90lbs or 80lbs? I'd just want the right torque specs to use. Its an aluminum block so I know you only can torque em down so much. What would be the max torque i can put on these alum. heads? Thanks y'all.

Jay