Blown Head Gasket? Heads not torqued?

Recently Dropped in some rebuilt and ported heads. Nice Crower level 3 cam in it as well and broke it in. Everything has gone well so far until this week. I noticed the Temp shoot up to 220 at a light but began lowering when moving around. Just parked it since I noticed the head gasket area bubbling.

Take a look guys.


The oil is still clean and even pulled the intake off. Could an intake leak trickle along the same area making it look like a head gasket since the engine is hot?


I am about to pull the heads and inspect them again for cracks or maybe the gasket.

Pulled the plug and its dry as well. maybe I caught it on time? The head gaskets had been sitting in their packaging on a shelf open. Maybe they were dry? I am pretty sure they were installed on correctly.


Well just wondering if anyone has seen this before. I might as well tear it down again to on the safe side.

 

Torqued them to 75lbs based on this reference guide unless I need to re-torque them.

https://www.teambuick.com/reference/350_engine_specs.php


I did drain the coolant since I began to disassemble the top end. Pulled the intake as well.

It did seem lower than expected. the heads and lifter valley look really clean as well. I am going to drain the pan, the coolant might be in there. I am hoping for the best. It is really odd, only on the driver front side is the only place I noticed. The Head expansion plugs are holding up as well so I ruled that out. I am am not too sure which head gaskets they were but they look like they are the orange crush, they are orange and have a metal ring where the cylinders go.

 

I went with a local kit for $38 since it included all the exhaust manifold gaskets and valve cover gaskets in one haha , Rockauto is awesome but shipping kills it at times.

I will go ahead and swap them, yes idk which gaskets they were but they were orange and matched up haha I'll try my luck with these and keep you guys posted!

 

been using all the brands with the blower for 13+ yrs. finally blew a head gasket last yr. only time. and we abuse the 350.
yup..those deals for 350 h/g's on rock auto are great.

 

Felpro gaskets for me. Torqued the head gaskets, by the manual, three diff torque sequence settings. No leaks. been a year.

 

It's always best to let the gasket sit overnight and then break the bolts loose one at a time and retorque.

Always you gotta set them dry, wipe the decks with brake clean, thinner or alchohol, no water should be trickling out of the jackets either

 

I wrapped it up a bit earlier. Driver side done. One more side to go. I made sure it was dry, ester kept trickling, I made sure I cleaned till nothing was trickling.

 

Took the head off and nothing looked really out of place, it appears the water that made it into the cylinders , was from removing the head itself.

Here is what the gasket looked like.


The front forward edge where the water was trickling looks black/ charred a bit. Could have been it not torqued down enough allowing it cause the leak.

I think I'm narrowing it down to a Dummy moment and realizing I might have not fully torqued the outer bolts to spec. When they came off, it didn't take as much effort as the rest.

I made sure I torqued them to 75lbs and the rocker shafts to 25lbs. So far it is looking good. I'm going to go ahead and replace the passenger side as well since I'm this far into it. Even managed to get the exhaust manifold and gaskets back in nicely on the driver side. Can't wait to wrap it up. The Crower level 3 Cam has nice power and definitely made a difference e en if I currently have the 2.56 peg leg. 3.42 posi is in the near future with a shift kit. You can tell the 350 wants to spin the tires easily , I can only imagine with 3.42s. the heads are lightly ported as well. Just waiting on a deal on some headers! If anyone wants to part with some haha.