Started up my freshly built 305, and everything was good until I discovered antifreeze was leaking inside and outside my engine. It got in my oil and yesterday I needed to change it after tightening the bolts around the water passages on the timing cover. Drained my oil and it looked like blackish dirty dish water. With metallic #### in it. After spending nearly $6K on this thing I'm stressed/pissed about this. Changed the oil, drove it up the street, so far so good. Today I peeked under the hood and sure enough more coolant puddled up on top of my timing cover. The engine had about 15 minutes of run time on it when I discovered it was leaking coolant. Not a happy camper. Still don't know if it's the intake or timing cover. Here's the question I don't want an answer to but I need it; does the metal flakes in my oil mean this engine is toast?

 

305 is a Chevy engine. Different forum.

 

305 = 302 bored 4.02 over. Technically 304.62 but I round up.

 

How freshly rebuilt? Metal in the oil is fine for a fresh rebuild well I mean within reason lol had some in mine when I drained the oil for the first time. The coolant well, did the water pump and timing cover get mounted correctly this always a weak spot for leaking if not cleaned and or sealing the gaskets properly.

 

i had it started for 15 minutes after it being built from oil pan to carburetor. Everything freshly machined. The works.

 

When you fresh fire an engine (after pre-pressurizing the oiling system) and perform run-in, you immediately drain the oil and change filter and put street oil in it (unless race).

Who assembled the engine, you or the shop?

 

"When you fresh fire an engine (after pre-pressurizing the oiling system) and perform run-in, you immediately drain the oil and change filter and put street oil in it (unless race)."

Does Ford do this with every vehicle it makes?

 

I assembled it. I used assembly lube on everything except for the lifters. They were soaked in oil and I also ended up priming the oil system.

 

Sounds like you did a thorough job in pre-oiling the engine.

 

I listened to the best advice I could get from guys on this forum and a different forum. Did everything right, but the antrifreeze leak has most likely eaten up my bearings. There's copper colored shavings in the oil so it's more less headed in the direction of a tear down and new bearings. It's my fault for not doing a pressure test on the cooling system. Or at least not having enough sense to know that when I see antifreeze dripping to immediately investigate the problem instead of going ahead with tuning the carb.

 

That's a pretty tough break. Keep us posted what you find out when you take it apart, with luck all the major components will be still good after a clean and inspection.

 

Will do. I’ll take some pictures too

 

I would still like to know if it was intake gaskets or just from around the water ports. Or maybe the intake torque sequence. Looking forward to what you find out.

 

No evidence of the water ports leaking on the timing cover. There is evidence of 3 out of the 4 water ports on the intake leaking. The engine is on my garage floor right now. I’ll dig in to it when I get off work and see exactly where things were leaking.

 

In the first 15 minutes of fire-up...what was the water temperature reading?
I ask only to confirm the head gaskets were installed correctly....no offense meant to question your assembly thorough-ness and attention to detail......

Water ports leaking........were the heads shaved?