this is on a buddy of mines ls1 rx7 swap

bought the engine with h/c second hand

we have changed the head gaskets once all ready from stock replacement to gm mls and arp studs same thing happened. first time it actually bent 2 rods on a restart from water in the cyl.

anybody know wtf is going on.. ive done lots of hg's on my car and never had this problem.. ive always pushed exhaust into the coolant system while running, not the complete opposite.

my only thing is that maybe the head surface is too rough.. it looks very rough cut..

thanks

 

You said that he bought the heads second hand. Maybe there is a crack in the head.

 

Crack in the head, or bad head or block deck surface. You should at least send the heads out to get cleaned up and ground flat. Also, check the deck for flatness. If you are using cometic gaskets, they are very sensitive to deck imperfections.

 

the heads were brand new, but second hand and installed by the previous owner before he bought the engine.

we are sending the heads to be surfaced and going to try another set of mls gaskets...i think i will copper spray these though.

 

talked to the machine shop, said the heads were 'broached' referring to the rough cut on the deck. said this is inappropriate for this engine and espeically for use w/ metal gaskets, and is not surprised at all that it would leak water.

 

That is no good. Well atleast you found your problem, it sucks that it was after everything was already together. How'd you find out that it was leaking water? I figured it would have been to late to figure it out seeing how water doesn't compress. There should have been a boom, others aren't as fortunate.

 

it bent two rods the first time, this time it stumbled and put white smoke out and we stopped immediately