I've got a 360 that is freshly built with maybe 10 miles at the max, I had to pull the intake off because it was leaking oil out the back of the intake put new gaskets on but it was pretty tight and had to be pried off. Let it set for an hour and started it up and took it for a drive and smelled antifreeze while we were driving and thought it was the radiator overflow, since I dont have the hose and bottle hooked up yet. But when I got to the shop I noticed it was leaking antifreeze, earlier on the first test drive i blew out a freeze plug which I think was due to the lower radiator hose getting kinked off and thought maybe I had another one leaking but after further examination it's leaking from between the block and the head on the driver's side anbout middle ways of the block, it looks like it's just bubbling out. So my question is does the head studs screw down into a water jacket could it be leaking from that and just need some liquid thread tape put on them and re-torqued. The gaskets are felpro 1008, compression is 11.2:1. A chevy guy said he had to do his studs that way because his was leaking.

When I fit put the 360 together in my Dart, I had major headgasket problems. I was using Mr Gasket gaskets. Changed over to FelPro and ended the problem. I do however use the white teflon available in a tube on all of my bolt threads. I believe that it acts as an anti-sieze also. Of course, my compression was kept at 9:1 which is a lot lower than yours.

I believe the LA blocks do have head bolts that go into water.

but my Magnum 360 I don't think it had any that did. I looked at all the holes and didn't see any that were open on the bottom, so either they're all closed off from water, or they were plugged up with crud!

It has the ARP head studs, so I should be able to pull them out one at a time and put the thread sealant on and keep my fingers crossed but with the luck I've been having with the motor I might want to cross my toes also .

Murphy's law is no fun to deal with & luckily it dont happen regularly but when it does.... I hope you luck out that it'd not from a nearby coolant hole

IIRC,all the head bolt holes in a SB are blind and in no water jackets

just tore down my 318 and all were dry or oily no water

sounds like something is not torqued down correctly,or the high comp ratio is blowing the gasket seal.

dont head studs need to be torqued to different specs?

I had head studs and took them out. If you don't have more than 12:1 compression, they are not needed. Also if you have studs, you must remove them, to get the left head off on a A body. It hits the MC. Guess how I know? LOL

"freshly built" does mean it was machined right?

Who assembled the engine? Are you sure the head bolts were torqued in proper sequence, torque step AND with lubricant under the bolt head? Did you go back after initial break-in and re-torque the head bolts?

are you sure its not leaking out one of the header bolt holes and onto the head bolt?

No they havent been re-torqued yet, but I know it was torqued right by a engine builder that builds motors for everyone in our club.

70Cuda383 is right the head bolts do run in the water jacket on a 360 as soon as I pulled one stud out it started filling up with antfreeze but my trick didn't work, so I'll have to pull off the head.