Just a random thought. Are your heads the pro1's specificcaly set up for reverse cooling?

Are the gaskets setup for the lt1 style cooling passages. I'm not sure if SBC heads gaskets are identicle to LT1 or not......


-Scott.

 

Boosted, yes they are the Dart Pro 180's for the LT1 with reverse cooling. Karl Ellwein of Ellwein Engines built the long block, so I am assured the head gaskets are the right ones. I have spoke with Karl in Sweden and he thinks it might be the crossover tubes or steam lines (whatever you choose to call them) leaking the water out the back of the engine and maybe just the heaed studs leaking. I went back to the ****bird shop that is working on my car and they still havent started on checking it out. There is no hurry now that they have my money and I have a gut feeling they did the damage and they know it. God help them if that is what is the findings!!

 

Pressure it up and get underneath the car and see exactly where it is coming from. If it is the crossover pipes on the back of the heads it is an easy quick fix. If it is the head gasket I would take it back to the shop and tell them to put some 1074's in there at no cost. They should fix it.

 

UPDATE:

Talked to the engine builder and he advised me just to have the shop reseal the studs using Permatex. Here is the kicker about this shop. They wait 4 days "before they could work my car back in"!! Funny, there is no hurry when they aleady got their money!! I asked them to call me when they got ready to pull the valve covers off and I would come to the shop and we would see what the cause was together. Well, they didn't. I got a call and they said they had found the leak! So I was pissed again, so I hurry to the shop and a miracle had happened!!! The leak from the back of the engine had disapeared!! The shops answer was "We didn't see any leak", but when I was inquiring about it more the guy working on my car happend to pull out a swivel socket and extension already put together, that happened to be the exact size of the banjo bolts on the back of engine and acted like he was snugging them!!!

Legal question: I picked my car up on a Friday and returned it to the shop that following Monday because of me having to add 1 gallon of coolant and my gas gauge not working. I told them that I was losing coolant somewhere and the low coolant light was still on. They "supposedly" check the coolant issue and said it was just burping the excess air out of the system. I call BS, because of the amount of coolant I added (1gallon). So I drive it back home and a few days later is when I went to change the oil and noticed the coolant in the oil. Now they are trying to charge me $125 tow bill!! I feel that this is there problem and should have checked the leak and therefore should eat the tow bill. What do you think?

 

I built runmyta's engine and he and I worked on the motor for a full day last week, (fixing all the head stud leaks), and one thing I learned is that Right Stuff RTV works very well at sealing head studs and 3M 5200 does not.
But it turns out that the coolant is leaking from the bottom of the engine and not the heads studs now. I have the car and will pull the motor and fix it with new block or whatever is needed.
Maybe the install shop rattled the motor and that brought a "pending" crack to the surface at the bottom of the motor but never the less, the bottom end is leaking. Gotta get busy fixing.... This car will be tearing up the streets soon.
Karl Ellwein