ol,RJ

I was just a few hours away from starting my new motor for the first time. just needed to put the distributor and ECM chip in. then I notice a small patch of water on the floor :eek:
coming from one of the head studs!
aparently the cooling system had gained pressure from the warmth of the day time (I filled it at night with distilled water).
I think the real problem is the ARP thread sealer I used to seal the head studs.
BLAST, I thought that stuff seemed weird :mad
now I have water in my oil because of the leaking head studs (bolts).
luckily I found this before trying to start the motor, but after I had been prelubing it.
so now after working on swapping the motor for a month, I have to pull the heads off. :rolleyes:
first I am going to try to flush the water out of the oil by many,many oil drains and prelubes, I sure hope this works.
then take the heads off and do it up with the old fashioned stuff that works!
I will never ever use ARP thread sealer again!!!!!!!!
hopefully I can still save my motor.

man this stinks, I wanted to take it to the NCM for Labor Day.

this is pretty much how far along it was. http://www.corvetteforum.net/c4/olrj/pictures/m25.jpg

if anyone has some good ideas on getting all the water out without yanking the motor , I'd love to hear them.
RJ

vanduker

Unfortunately I know your pain. All of the experience below was on turbocharged V6 Buicks but should apply to your case.

I know the Permatex 14A thread sealer dissolves in DexCool. The ARP stuff may be the same. I can't swear it will work, but a number of us have had luck curing this by using the GM sealant tablets. Everyone who has tried them has avoided pulling the motor back out. Unfortunately it takes a few minutes for the stuff to circulate so you may end up needing to start the car without a radiator cap (so you have no cooling system pressure) and see what you get.

Leaks like this are one of the reasons I moved to using Evans NPG coolant in the Buick. At least if it leaks into the oil it isn't corrosive and much less likely to wipe out the motor.

If you do end up pulling it back out, I'd use studs and GM Sealant.

Hope this helps.

Mark

ol,RJ

thanks for the info vanduker,
luckly I didn't have antifreeze in it, just distilled water.
in the past I have just used permatex no.2 or ATV, never had a problem.
I have ARP stud's in it right now (I have no complaints about ARP's hardware).
If it was just a small leak I would try the pellets (I didn't know they had them, thanks) but I'm afraid that once the motor gets up to temp it would be gushing water out. I don't think it got up to 17lbs of pressure in it before leaking, thats what upsets me, I thought that I would use their sealer since it was made for their products. I cleaned the hardware and holes with brake cleaner before installing to remove any oils ect. don't know anything I could have done different to make it better.
the motor oil looked like a weak coffee with extra cream :(
I would like to pull the stud's out and replace the sealer, this may be possible.
got to run down and get more oil to pump thru it, its starting to look a little better, maybe after a few more gallons of fresh oil it will clear up.
:smash: I'll keep working on it :smash:
RJ

AquaMetallic94LT1

I had a similar problem when I did my 383 last fall. Water in the oil and water dripping down from one head bolt. Mine turned out to be incorrectly machined deck surface and a small impression on the surface of one deck. I thought mine was sealer related too but it wasn't.

mackeyred96

Not good, sorry :(

ol,RJ

well I think I have gotten the water out. after pumping over a case of cheap oil thru the motor, its coming out clean.
also started taking it apart, dropped the exhaust and got one header loose.
I think I'll try resealing the head bolts without taking the motor apart. just take one out at a time, clean, put new sealer on, and reinstall.
this time I'll pressurize the system and check for leaks before buttoning it up.
if it still leaks then I'll yank the heads off.
if it works it will save a lot of time.

I can't see it being a head/block surface problem . the deck was zero'ed and the heads are new, and I checked them before assembly. anything is possible though.

I was really depressed yesterday.
think I'll name this motor "Dr. Lector" (hanabal the canabal from Silence of the lambs), its eating my money and time.
RJ

on a side note, the oil pressure was running 64psi while pumping with a very overworked drill, so its not all bad afterall.


[Modified by ol,RJ, 11:55 PM 8/5/2001]