Very Worried

[steve welder]

If you read my radiator post you would have seen that I had coolant being pushed out of radiator and I found coolant in #3 cylinder. We thought what we saw was a crack and having a spare head I just got that head back from the shop, bead blasted and resurfaced
However what I did today was install a rubber gasket and a plank of wood over the old head, put nuts and bolts and effectively isolated #3 combustion chamber. I filled it up with solvent and pressurised it through the spark plug hole, I have a good 125 psi going in......Does not appear to be leaking through what I thought was a crack
Now I had the blocked decked and the head resurfaced and the shop that did the work used a copper gasket..... So now all I can be thinking is some how some way cylinder pressure in #3 hole is pushing antifreeze under the gasket
As Mr B suggested im not going to use a copper gasket and I was thinking of using another sealant on head studs
I have a machinist straight edge that I will check the head tomorrow
What im really concerned is it's a block crack. A block crack will devastate me financially as I just had this engine rebuilt and assembled less manifolds water pump and so on
To look for another block after spending what I did for this block (old original block was N/G, I dont even want to think about it
So things can be worse but fingers crossed

[bmorgil]

Steve, I think your OK. I thought way back, in one of your threads, you mentioned bolts instead of studs were in your engine. I have said it a few times here but its worth saying it one more time. Using bolts instead of studs notoriously cracks the block at the threads in in the block. It can usually be repaired. If that all looks good, I would reassemble with the correct process and the composite gasket. Re-Torque after a heat and cool down, just as we spoke of earlier. Before you fire it after it is reassembled, run a pressure check. Fix the radiator neck so you can use your tester.

No sealer on the studs. They do not enter the water jacket. The studs and gasket need to be installed correctly. There are some links to the service manuals in the Tech Section of this Forum. Follow the process as written and you should be fine.