Lady Redhawk

iTrader: (6)

Gasket has less than 500 miles on it. Used ARP bolts and all where still torqued to 70 lbs. Started to leak very small amount of coolant early on, but not sure if from the beginning or after a few WOT N/A. At the track it leaked enough off the line they had to wipe up a few drops. Never smoked, just start running low on coolant.

At first we thought the thermostat had gone bad, replaced it and it seemed to be fine. Drove it 20 to 30 miles around town over a couple of days and it didn't overheat and was not low on coolant. Went back to the track and made two N/A runs all seemed good. Then hit it with 100 TNT shot and then noticed it was starting to run hot and it was again low on coolant.

Pulled the heads this evening and can see where it was leaking in several places. Would like to know why this happened. Just a bad head gasket? ARP bolts? They were still torqued down good.

ninobrn99

iTrader: (8)

could just be that the gasket was bad.. is it just that one??

JMBLOWNWS6

iTrader: (17)

I TQ the arp's to 70 then make another pass at 75. Had the same problem with 2002BLACKRAMAIRS car.

mr2guru

iTrader: (16)

https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthrea...bolts+too+long

Possibly the issue.

LS1FIRE

iTrader: (1)

I wonder if that was the problem of the bolts being a tad bit longer.

383ss

iTrader: (14)

those gaskets are complete crap. they will no stand up to spray. get some Cometic MLS gaskets.

TS6

iTrader: (41)

You lifted the head somehow, perhaps its the bolt length problem (makes sense) or too much cylinder pressure, but seeing that the fire ring looks intact, it obviously lost clamping force.

Lady Redhawk

iTrader: (6)

Is the bolt length visible to the eye when comparing it to the stock bolts. When we first installed the ARPs he put them beside the stock bolts and the looked like the same size, but did not measure it to the millimeter.

I would think it would be the nitrous too, but I believe it started before any nitrous runs, just didn't know it was that bad until after the TNT runs. The other head is fine, no trouble there.

PREDATOR-Z

Graphite? I shoot 200 dry with 11.0:1 SCR with no problems on GM bolts.

I wouldn't call them crap. Of course they have limits (as everything else does)

383ss

iTrader: (14)

I have not had any luck with them at all. I blew mine without even spraying. that is with ARP head studs.

Lady Redhawk

iTrader: (6)

The ARPs are the same length as the stock bolts.

PREDATOR-Z

Hmmm, could it be that the TTY GM bolts grab better with those gaskets?
I've used Cometics with ARPs (IIRC Cometic recommend not to use TTY with them), I could be wrong though, but I think I've seen that somewhere.

cowboysfan

by just looking at bolts pic, looks like u could be running out of threads. just my observation from the bolt pics.




fuerzaws6

tuff

iTrader: (15)

[QUOTE=cowboysfan]by just looking at bolts pic, looks like u could be running out of threads. just my observation from the bolt pics.

I noticed the same thing it looks like it's bottom out on the bolt were theres no threads.Best way to check is to put the bolt in the hole all the way and measure to see if it's going in deep enough.

Lady Redhawk

iTrader: (6)

That could be....I wanted to use Cometics but they were out of stock everywhere when I needed them. And today we are just doing the one head, so.......it's graphite it is again.

About the bolts running out of thread, you can see how they stopped on the stock ones at the same place.

family sedan

iTrader: (3)

I thought ARP recommended re-checking the torque after driving it for a little bit? It appears the clamping force was reduced due to loosening and it burnt out the graphite.

LS1FIRE

iTrader: (1)

It looks like the GM bolts got allot more thread on them compared to the arps. I Just installed my heads with arp bolts ill be watching this thread and the heads like a hawk. How are you gona fix the problem lady redhawk? Are you going to use the arp bolts again?

dman

iTrader: (5)

while you have the head off drop a couple of head bolts into the head and see how far the thread goes... I would assume you would want atleast a 1/2" worth of threads up in the hole to allow for gasket crush.

slt200mph

iTrader: (42)

Good luck..let us know how it goes..

Lady Redhawk

iTrader: (6)

UPDATE:

Here are the conclusions we have come to:

At high rpms when the cylinder pressure was high, the driver's side head lifted. Note that the gasket showed signs leaking on the head side of the gasket, the engine side of the gasket was ok. That is why there was no smoking like you would expect with a blown head gasket.

My first trip to the track after the ARP head bolts where installed, I was running all motor, my nitrous had not been hooked back up yet. On the two passes I made, right before the 2nd to 3rd shift I felt something like a hesitation before the shift, like the car just stalled out in power. Anyone that has hit the rev limit before knows how that feels, this was similar, but not near as noticeable. Since I just had the tranny rebuilt, I was thinking that the tranny wasn't shifting right or fast enough. I was scanning the runs with EFILive and it showed no knock and no misfires.

I believe that is when it first lifted the head and that is what I was feeling. Latter when I went back to the track and sprayed the 100 TNT shot to it, it lifted even more.

Even though the directions that came with the ARP bolts did not say to torque cycle the bolts three times, their website directions tell you to do so. If we had known that we may not have had all this trouble. Hopefully we will not have any more trouble out of these bolts now. Time will tell once I get up the nerve to take it wide open again.

Hope this helps anyone that is going to use ARP bolts.