MLS head gasket leak
I certainly didn’t mean to start a debate here. I only asked WS6Store about spraying theirs, because I use their gaskets...most of the time, unless I need something custom...and he posted in ALL CAPS to not spray their gaskets, so I thought I better ask him in case they found that the spray is eating their particular gaskets or something weird.
I spray my headgaskets, and it’s a light spray, not dripping wet or anything, just to make it tacky and give the surface a little bite, because I’ve sprayed my headgaskets for the last 28 years. Just the way I do things. It’s not right or wrong, just the way I do it.
After thinking about this, I did build a 5.3 that I didn’t spray and it worked great for 20k miles, and got pulled for a 6 liter build.
I spray my headgaskets, and it’s a light spray, not dripping wet or anything, just to make it tacky and give the surface a little bite, because I’ve sprayed my headgaskets for the last 28 years. Just the way I do things. It’s not right or wrong, just the way I do it.
After thinking about this, I did build a 5.3 that I didn’t spray and it worked great for 20k miles, and got pulled for a 6 liter build.
If you're referring to my post... my post was just a lot of thinking out loud. No debate or issues, apologies if it came of rough
If you spray them and it works. Then it works. I don't spray them unless it's a problematic vehicle known for head gasket issues. I only ever sprayed one gasket, well a few on one type of vehicle, and that was late 90's early 00's dodge neons. We had a rash of them come through with bad gaskets so we took every step there was to help them last longer and sprayed those.
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There was one time I embarassingly put one of my HGs on backwards on my turbo LS build. Caught it in time and fixed it with no issues.
Aside from that, the little coolant steam pipe under the intake caused a leak that I thought was from the HG but it was in fact from that stupid little crossover pipe that connects all four steam ports. Ya know, the one everyone and their dog (including me in the past) thinks is somehow better than the steam pipe that is just connecting the front two. Almost every LS I've ever seen has the latter, the 2 hole/port design steam tube.
Aside from that, the little coolant steam pipe under the intake caused a leak that I thought was from the HG but it was in fact from that stupid little crossover pipe that connects all four steam ports. Ya know, the one everyone and their dog (including me in the past) thinks is somehow better than the steam pipe that is just connecting the front two. Almost every LS I've ever seen has the latter, the 2 hole/port design steam tube.
I dont spray new MLS gaskets with heads that dont have the notch. With some of the trucks and cars we have worked on here the graphite gaskets decay and corode and have caused some issues over time so we swap in MLS LS6/L33 gaskets even with the old notched heads using copper spray and coolant pucks with good success. I have re-used 5 layer MLS head gaskets on my own 6.2L four times now without issue using spray every time.
My advice? Use your head, and use whats proven to work for you. Cant go wrong with new gaskets though, its never a bad plan to aim for that but its your money and you can use advice given to you by others to help you save some or not. Either way, theres always a risk when you take something apart, even brand new engines fail.
My advice? Use your head, and use whats proven to work for you. Cant go wrong with new gaskets though, its never a bad plan to aim for that but its your money and you can use advice given to you by others to help you save some or not. Either way, theres always a risk when you take something apart, even brand new engines fail.
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 105
Likes: 12
From: Iowa
Got it back together last night with Steel core laminates from fel pro. Inspected heads and block again while apart and all looked well. Installed new bolts from summit and torqued according to spec. Been driving it around all day to do some dialing in with efi live and all seems well and no leaking. Holds pressure and no external leak as of now. Still curious as to what my issue was before and wondering if my gaskets were knock offs or something. I did purchase off of eBay. Either way it doesn’t matter all seems well now. Thanks all for any insight offered. I do think next time I do another build I’ll give the fel pro mls a try
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 105
Likes: 12
From: Iowa
