Competition Oring aftermath

[BIG C]

I had the head and block decked, new HG, 12mm studs, and oringed. I have retorqued once to 125lbs and getting ready to retorque again. I noticed I am loosing coolant on the passenger side of the motor between the head and the block. Its nothing major but it does leave a small puddle on the garage floor over night. My question is can I just retorque the studs and be good or do I have to take the head off and do a cleanup. There is no sign of coolant in the oil and I dont seem to be loosing any oil. Whatcha think???



Chad

 

[jwilliams3]

I have that problem on my 99, it took a while to show up though after the O ringing.

I still havent got around to installing the un-oringed head back on to see if that will fix the problem.

 

[McCRam]

Try retorquing them again. I was told to retorque many times. I have done mine six times so far. Each time I find a loose one. I just found another loose one at 5000 miles.

 

[Forrest Nearing]

I see no reason why they should need to be retorqued so many times if they're at their proper stretch point

 

[lmills]

you retorque till the headgasket/o-ring are fully compressed so that it minimizes the chance of blowing it. That is one of the differences between the ones that pop at 75 PSI and the ones that hold at 100

 

[Todd T]

yeah, i agree with Lmills, three times is not that unusual. Are you line torqueing and are you backing them off one at a time and re-seating or just bumping them. the proper way is to back them off one at a time and re-torque. you can do this in the torque secquence or line torque its your choice.



I'd try one more time before panicing.

 

[Bandit1]

a buddy had a small leak after his oring job at the pass side front corner, turns out he had a bit to much protrusion on the oring and it just took a few more retorques to crush that ring enough to seal the coolan.

 

[Jim Fulmer]

I have one of Piers's first O-Ring setup's and it has more protrusion than most people run . 018 and when I first put the head on the old motor I had a bit of trouble getting it to seal (3 re-torques) but once it was there, it was there. When I tore it down this winter after 2 years it looked like someone took a hammer and chisel to make the O-Ring groove in the gasket, had to say... . that's why I never had an issue with it. I didn't change a thing and put it back together and it's doing fine. Re-torques(line fashion) are paramount!



Jim

 

[BIG C]

Before the first retorque I did have a little bit up coolant leakage. Did the retorque and no more leaks. Until now after a month of daily driving the leak came back. Im sure another retorque will take care of it like last time. I just wanted to be sure that the leaking coolant wouldnt affect the seal between the block and the head.



The procedure I used was regular torque sequence. What is "line torque" technique?? I loosened one stud at a time, applied more moly lube, then retorqued to 125.



Chad