I fixed the left head gasket, filled it with water and put 7 pounds of pressure in the system. The left head seems fine. The right started to leak from the back of the head just like the left. So I changed that gasket too. Both show no signs of leakage now.

I still can't explain what happened. Neither gasket showed signs of compression yet I know both were torqued to specs, twice and still had plenty of ARP lube on the bolts.

Cab, the finish on the mating surfaces is smooth.

I'm pretty confident, but the real test will be when I fire it. It's all ready, just need to prime it again and put the dist back in. Hopefully Tuesday if my helper doesn't have too much homework.

you might pump it up to 15 & WO water/coolant is the best for no contamination if it does leak & has to come apart again (hopefully not). it'll take longer to pump up air than water since as you know water ain't compressible but better be safe than sorry. (going thru the cooling system from Hell myself/same deal) & still ain't solved it

I did pump it up with air first, then with water when it looked good. I did hold off on the antifreeze in case I have to drain the block again. If it survives the start up, I will drain some water and add antifreeze.

perfect plan, you have it covered dead on but I am wondering why you didn't go higher on the psi check

I meant to say 7 pounds with air and around 12-14 pounds with water. Just too much pumping with air only.

We fired it up tonight. Started right up with no leaks or bad noises. Seems to run good. I noticed the TTI headers don't quite clear the idler arm so I will have to do something there

I hope I can get it out on the road before it snows.

My ARP instructions said to torque to 60 lbs with aluminum heads and ARP lube. I think that is not enough. I went 70 lbs with the new gaskets. That said, I won't be using any Mr Gasket head gaskets in the future.


Thanks everyone