Intro and current project

[turbohunter]

Checked pan oil just now.
Pristine.
Here's the rad cap also.
When I shut it off the rad over flows with oil.
I think I'll take Jay's ideas and maybe add taking out the bolts that pass the head oil supply, coat those with sealer then retorque.
What do you guys think?

[jayb]

Ooooo, what a pretty blue picture    Or not.  Anyway, are you talking about removing the head bolt where the oil comes up and coating that with sealer?  I'm not sure what that would buy you, and depending on where you put the sealer you might actually block oil flow to the head.  You'd want to avoid that, of course. 

Glad to hear that there is no water in the oil pan.  So, oil pressure is somehow getting to the cooling system.  It could easily be the head gasket, right at the point where the oil passage up to the head is next to the water jacket in the head gasket....

[turbohunter]

Ok thanks Jay.
I'll go the easy way at first and follow your recipe.
Thanks again for your time.

[fastback 427]

I'd pull intake and heads, looking for oil saturation or a leak. What head gaskets are on it now? 1020 felpro? I've heard the victor seal better but never used them. Maybe cometics would seal the best but are 200 bucks and the block could still be cracked. If its overfilling your radiator that's a big leak and I would have my doubts about a block sealer like moroso, etc.

[turbohunter]

I get your point and it's a good one.
I think I'll make that decision after I try a retorque.
If it's good and tight, then the heads are coming off. If I feel like it's loose then I'll give the filler a try.
The gaskets are indeed Felpros. Never again.
I really don't care about the price of new gaskets if they work.

[turbohunter]

Well, decided to pull the engine and do it right.
I can't help myself.
Checked the torque of all bolts. All good.
Pulled the heads and can't blame the gaskets, they were fine.
Pressured up the oil system before head pull (no manifold) to watch it work, lotsa oil, no leaks visible or audible.
Pulled the heads and pressure checked the passages with air, no leaks.
Checked/pressurized bolt holes next to the head oil feeds, no leaks.
The block looks great. Hard to believe that it's cracked. Would've heard or seen something.
Gonna pull the heads apart and check them thoroughly.
On the positive side, the mechanicals all look great.
Plugs are perfect.
The search continues.

[bobford]

oil in water and not water in oil .I think you need to check the oil passage through the block that runs through the water jacket  and as oil pressure is damn near higher than water pressure some times they crack . ( WHY??) .As I remember is a pushrod with ends gut off driven with sealer on it down from top ,or???
 Seems to me I remember some one posting a service buliton on this (from FORD?)

[cjshaker]

Curious if you inspected the gaskets carefully? Did you notice nice sealing imprints from the head and block around the oil passage slot? No sign of any "non-imprinting", meaning it wasn't compressed enough to seal, around any ports, passages etc?

If that is the case, Bob could be right about the oil transfer passage through the block. I've always checked them by pushing a piece of rubber into the hole in the cam passage, then putting my rubber tipped air gun over the deck hole and pressurizing. Escaping air will be pretty easy to hear. But you have to make sure and get the rubber into the cam hole deep enough to get past the cam bearing or it will just escape out the bearings backside slot.

It's a bummer you have to go through this

[turbohunter]

One side is beautiful.
The other blurry side has the witness mark but its not as clean as the other side.
Also the end of the passage looks like it was deburred.

[turbohunter]

oil in water and not water in oil .I think you need to check the oil passage through the block that runs through the water jacket  and as oil pressure is damn near higher than water pressure some times they crack . ( WHY??) .As I remember is a pushrod with ends gut off driven with sealer on it down from top ,or???
 Seems to me I remember some one posting a service buliton on this (from FORD?)

Wouldn't pressurizing that passage with air give you some indication that it's leaking.
I would think you would be able to hear it, or see it bubbling through the oil in the valley.
Just re read Dougs post.
Since the short block is still together I can't get in there to block off the cam bearing area.
I plugged the opposite side and pressurized it. Since there is oil everywhere I was hoping to hear something.
Only got some bubbling around the lifters.
Didn't hear anything else.

[bobford]

 The crack would be in water jacket ,you would have to plug  both ends and one of the plugs would have to be able provide the air source and hear leak or fill waterjacket with water and check for bubbles (Damn old age my mind can't remember were bottom port is I ) think main bearing bore.
   Damn I saved that post about the repair fix, but can't find it in my  puter  it's as screwed up as I am!!!

[turbohunter]

It's a bummer you have to go through this

Thanks
Looking at it as a learning experience.

[cjshaker]

The crack would be in water jacket ,you would have to plug  both ends and one of the plugs would have to be able provide the air source and hear leak or fill waterjacket with water and check for bubbles (Damn old age my mind can't remember were bottom port is I ) think main bearing bore.

Actually, it comes from 2 of the cam bearings, fed from the center oil galley which is why solid lifter sideoilers require special cam bearings to feed oil to the heads.

That first picture looks perfect. Nice clean gasket lines and no visuals of fluid transfer out of the area. That blurry one looks like it could have an issue. It looks like oil MAY have been escaping there. Is that an air gap around that hole or just a shadow of some sort? Does the head gasket show signs of fluid transfer out of its slot? You could make a makeshift stethoscope out of some fuel line and rubber hose, stick it down that water passage while pressurizing the oil tube and listen carefully for air escaping in there. I think I would inspect that area very closely.

[ScotiaFE]

Here is a link to the block repair thing.

 http://www.gessford.com/images/FE-Block-Repair-AERA.htm

My thinking is those Felpros where not sticking on very good.
I don't see any blue on the block. They normally leave a blue covering when released.
They are to be put on completely dry, maybe a very thin film of oil was still on the deck surface?

[Lenz]

Wow, been following along, good attitude to have in times of trouble (looking at it as a learning experience).  Hope you get it sorted out soon.  Makin' me a bit nervous about my Felpros, gotta say   last thing I did before I set the head gaskets was to wipe the deck down with lacquer thinner to get it as clean and dry as possible.  Fired mine up yesterday, got a couple of stupid questions for the group but that's another thread....