Tin Indians

well, i replaced my head gaskets about a month ago and since then, everything was fine. well then i had a hose split on me. after i replaced the hose i refilled the cooling system. well, upon firing the engine i noticed something that made me sick. as soon as the engine fired, the coolant (while looking down the uncapped radiator) started to bubble. when i revved the motor the coolant level raised and bubbled more. same thing as last time the gasket blew. the funny thing is on the old gasket, you could barely see where water/combustion was leaking by. if i wiped the area off, you couldn't tell the gasket was bad. the other funny thing is my plugs are perfect (no signs of antifreeze) nothing in the oil. nothing out the tail pipe. the only thing is the bubbles and pressure in the radiator, and the fact that it overheats quickly. i guess my questions are,

1. Is there a chance a re-torque of the heads will fix my issue?

2. Can air get into the cooling system from somewhere else?

3. Is the 9966 a bad replacement gasket?

when i resurfaced the heads, the machine shop said the head was in good shape but barely cut the surface to clean it up.

thanks for any help guys and girls.

chevyowner02

Try to bleed it.http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html#radflush And I hope you used new head bolts on it.

Tin Indians

this isn't an issue of trapped air, the cooling system is being pressurized by compression. i was woundering in a situation like mine, if anyone has re torqued the head bolts and fixed the problem. and why do i have to replace the bolts of they are not torque to yield bolts? is there something different about these bolts?

95Blackhawk

My feeling is if you have that much air from the cylinder leaking by, a retorque won't fix it.

Tin Indians

well, time for an update. i did a re-torque and believe it or not, it worked. no more overheating, no more combustion in the cooling system. everything is normal again. but i will keep an eye on things just in case.

95Blackhawk

You lucky!!!!

Keep an eye out for it. My guess is the gasket will not live as long as normal ones...but I was wrong on the first post.