Water in Head 2-leaking head studs
 

Ok my cluster __ck continues. I had a new motor built after my first motor was a pc of you know what.
I found a new builder with a good rep -dyno'd the motor last week. Two days after i got the motor home i went to put on diff valve covers. Noticed clear water in the head area about 3 tsps. I called the builder he said it was most likely condensation. Motor is 388 sbc w canfield heads.
I put the motor in ..ran it for 10 min and found a puddle of coolant after i turned the car off. I found every head stud i could see leaking coolant around it. Coolant temp was about 160 for the short 5 min. Builder claims i cant use coolant in this motor..just water ..why?
What can be done with this?.. do the heads have to come off??.. how should this be handled.?
This motor has no passes and never left the garage. has total of 4 dyno pulls and 5 min of run time in the garage
<< Sigh>> this sucks.. and this musical motor thing is making my back sore!

His theory is that the water will evaperate quicker, where the coolant won't, but in my IMO, he should have used a sealent with all the studs that go into the water on the block (some holes are blind) I never put an engine together with studs that i don't use sealent on all the studs and with alum heads i use sealent if i use bolts.


JMO

Zip.

Dead on .. if it were mine it'd be coming out taking back to him and getting fixed right. You paid good hard earned money and not for a problem like this.

i AGREE
 

David i agree...its coming out again. I paid the first builder who charged me 5700 for an anchor. This second guy had a good rep so he did this motor#2 which was 7400.00 .. my wallet is tired and im tired.. the 5700 motor at least made 6 passes before it pitched... this one never made it out of the garage.
I orig raced 13yrs ago had a blast with my nova ..now since i came back in March .. its been nothing but problems..im reaching my witts end.

As was mentioned .. Studs going into open holes have to have a sealant on them. I have always used Loctite # 582 teflon sealer and never had a problem.

If you dont want to remove each stud and apply the sealer to them, get some K & W Block Seal or Moroso Ceramic Seal and use as directed.... both will seal up the leaks for a year or so .. or permantly.

i have a friend who built a 406 sbc wuth new afr heads was very detailed in his build.
he as well has a leak around head studs so he removed the heads bought new gaskets and arp thread sealant and they still leaked. he then removed heads then sent them back to afr because he thought maybe it was his steam holes causing problems they said there was no problem so he put it back togeather and was still leaking then he was telling story at parts store and an old man told him to use km or kw or kd block sealer .. (im not sure on exact name.) he followed directions exactly and it worked for the last 3 years and he runs 10.30's on motor.
he swears by it.

but id see what engine builder does first..
goodluck .
if you use the block sealer by pas radiator when warming engine up or it may plug rad so im told..

water leak!!!
 

They will never seal with just thread sealer!!! You have to just run it with block sealer or some kind of radiator stop leak to seal the studs up! Just buy arp bolts and be done with it! Easier to install and easier to remove. The only time i use studs is on a engine with high blower boost ,turbo, lots of nitrous or a block that has thread issues.

Re: water leak!!!
 

I will respectfully disagree with this as I have had engines with heads studs sealed with the loctite 582 for quite a few years w/o so much as a drop from a head stud.

The Block sealers mentioned above have only been required on engines w/ head studs that people installed dry.

Re: water leak!!!
 

x2 have used thread sealer with good luck

x3 thread sealer works for me too.

X4

i have personally used teflon tape with ULTRA GREY Permatex sealer smeared on top of the teflon tape....and not one drop of water has leaked or seeped thru the head studs....

this is the method i have used in the past with 100% reults and no issues removing studs at a later date..



just another idea of how to do it.

Brian

If they are ARP studs, take them to a buffing wheel and give them a good buffing, then try thread sealer or we have even used the brand right stuff silicon, just another idea we have experimented with and have had great success.

Resealing threads on the head studs
 

Last night i went thru removing 1 stud at a time and a serious cleaning procedure , remove the stud, clean in laquer thinner, wire wheel the threaded area, reclean with brake cleaner, use a small wire bottle brush with thinner and clean the block side hole, then goop it up with the Loctite 567 , Resealing with a high end loctite 567 thread sealer.. it will seal to 1000 psi in 1 hr - 10,000 psi in 24hrs, good to 450f .. this crap better work it was 75 bucks for a 250ml tube!!!
Tonight i will put water in and pressure test it... I really hope this works!!

Resealing worked
 

Ok 4hrs of removing -cleaning and installing and re- torqueing - put water in the system- pressureized it to 16 lbs and no water leaking from the head studs. Looks like the Loctite 567 does what it says it does.
Tomorrow i will run it thru some heat cycles..and see what happens.

Thanks for all the suggestions

oh .. and the guy who built the motor did 90% of the work ..hell the motor never made it out of the garage!.. But it was good to see someone stand behind there work.