Cylinder Head Leaking Coolant Right? **PIC**

[duppyconqueror]

Hi everyone,

I've been working on my 3.8 cutlass thanks to everyone on here whose been helping me out. Would I be correct in saying that this cylinder head is leaking coolant?

 

[Fox80]

Looks like it could have been, did you see any obvious spot on the gasket? A coolant to chamber leak should have left combustion residue on the top of the block

 

[duppyconqueror]

No obvious spot in the gasket. The gaskets actually look like they have been changed. Maybe that bleaching on the head is from before the gasket was replaced, but I don't think that they got the heads resurfaced when they changed the gasket and I'm pretty sure its still leaking coolant into the block because it was running a bit hot and losing a lot of coolant with no signs of a leak from the radiator or hoses. Also I was getting some white smoke and water droplets out the exhaust. I may just pull this motor and start building a sbc but it will take a while because funds don't come in steadily.

 

[Fox80]

Well if I was a little short on cash I wouldn't start a motor build, even a SBC built right can add up in a hurry, have the heads checked, resurfaced, valve job ( guides and seals) give the top of the block a good cleaning, check it and the cylinder bores for cracks very carefully and put it back together. If it looks like someone already had it apart, I would for sure think they missed something or did something wrong, of course I'm the kind of person if I bought a fresh rebuilt motor I would tear it apart and redo it just because I assumed they did it wrong

 

[rustyroger]

If coolant was leaking into the block you would have milkshake for oil.

I had a few cars that ran hot and coolant mysteriously disappearing, recoring the radiator cured them in all cases.

Roger.