Head Gasket or worse?

[drinkingdiesel]

The weather has been so nice up here in Canada I have been out a bunch since I got the car a month ago.

The previous owner stored it in a heated garage and had no worries about freezing but for this winter anyways she's going to be getting cold in my unheated garage. So I went and changed the antifreeze to make it good for -37. In doing do I got a decent ait bubble in the coolant and had an afternoon of it running hot a few weeks ago but burped it and had seemed totally fine.


A couple nights ago I took her for a rip and when I came home and shut er off I could see and hear steam escaping from mid head drivers side under the exhaust manifold.

Doesn't seem to be old in coolant or coolant in oil.

Could this just be the edge of the head gasket is bad, the head is cracked, or the head is warped?

See pics.

 

[Don Frelier]

It could be any of the things listed.
Or maybe it's just coming out of the stud for the exhaust manifold as they go into the water jacket.

 

[pnora]

To me it looks above the head gasket area. You might have to remove the manifold for a closer look. It could be manifold studs leaking or it could be a crack in the head.

 

[drinkingdiesel]

It could be any of the things listed.
Or maybe it's just coming out of the stud for the exhaust manifold as they go into the water jacket.

It also seems to have devolved a bit of an exhaust leak I can barely hear. I didn't know the studs went into the water jacket. That may be exactly what it is all being said, and it looks like it's coming out between the manifold and the head.

Thanks so much for that info, it saved me tearing down this winter lol.

So what's the best course of action here? Pull the exhaust studs in that area and put some sort of sealant on them and re-istall?

 

[Beekeeper]

It also seems to have devolved a bit of an exhaust leak I can barely hear. I didn't know the studs went into the water jacket. That may be exactly what it is all being said, and it looks like it's coming out between the manifold and the head.

Thanks so much for that info, it saved me tearing down this winter lol.

So what's the best course of action here? Pull the exhaust studs in that area and put some sort of sealant on them and re-istall?

Yep drain the coolant down below the heads and remove the manifold and remove the studs. Get them clean and dry as well as the threads in the head and use some high temp permatex on the threads and run them in. Give the permatex time to cure before refilling the coolant. There’s probably some good thread sealant you could use as well.

 

[68_661charger]

I cant tell from the pics but I had a 906 crack about 2 inches in that same spot but I definately over heated it when I was younger.

 

[hunt2elk]

Possible that the freeze plug is corroded and leaking? I have had that happen before.

 

[drinkingdiesel]

I started diving into this yesterday. Got exhaust flange to manifold bolts out with a bunch of cursing, got into manifold nuts and bolts and the rear drivers side is a bolt is directly behind the steering shaft. I have tried a number of combinations of wrenches and ratchets to get it off but it's not looking easy as I thought.

What's the procedure here? Does the engine need to be raised or I haven't got the right combo yet. Only thing I haven't tried is an offset box wrench because I don't have one here.

 

[Wietse]

You can loosen the driver side mount and lift it a bit with a jack on the pan rail to get access to the bolt.
That is less work than pulling the steering shaft.

 

[Don Frelier]

I've never needed to lift the engine or pull back the steering column.
And I don't recall needing any special tools to get manifolds off?
But some a wobble socket extension and/or a universal may be helpful.
They should be all studs and hopefully you don't snap one off.

 

[drinkingdiesel]

Well, I got it all apart, offset boxend was the right tool. But.....
Put it all back together fired it up and still leaking. My plan is to pull the manifold back off and pressure test it to see where it's actually leaking from. Either I didn't seal the studs well enough or I have a cracked head.

 

[drinkingdiesel]

Here's one for ya.

Pulled manifold back off, wiped down the area. Put pressure tester on and pumped it to 18 PSI and not a drop is coming out anywhere and the testers needle hasn't moved in 2 hours.

I thought maybe it needed to be warmed up to leak but last night after firing it up it immediately was steaming and dripping off the block, and thats was with no rad cap on. When I reved it up it made it worse...now not a drop.

I'm going to leave it as is under pressure until tomorrow after work and if nothing changes I'm putting the manifold back on and see what happens.