Is the head gasket the culprit here, or is there something else I am missing? I know that a head or block could be cracked, but I am ordering parts and want to know if I am missing another seal or gasket somewhere else.

TIA

 

Personally, I would determine the origin of the leak prior to ordering any parts. What do we know about the engine, history, short term, long term, running, running when parked, etc?

 

It is all original long block, but I did put a Edelbrock intake a 4 Barrel on it a while back and this has REALLY helped power and starting in the cold. It has been running for about 18 months after sitting since 1983 - it did have glycol in the water jacket and was never seized.

I have a fresh-rebuilt bored, stroked, hardened valve seats, 1953 Merc Engine on a stand, but I don't want to put it in yet - I want to get my T98 rebuilt and assembled, painted and put it in as one unit with the Merc. I will put the Merc in now if the heads or block is cracked, but I have no trouble taking the hour or two to put new head gaskets on and flushing the coolant system to get the oil out. I have to order the head gaskets (nobody has the lefthand side one locally), so I wanted to get a jump on this. Is there anyplace else in the engine with a gasket or seal where the crankcase meets the water jacket? If the engine ends up being cracked, I will just inventory the parts since I will need them someday.

 

Before getting any parts, pull both heads and carefully clean the gasket surfaces. Look closely for cracks, especially between the exhaust valves and cylinders. There will most likely be small cracks around the water jacket and bolt holes, but these often do not pose a problem unless they are severe.

If it is to the point where water is getting in the oil, and the source is a cracked block or head, the crack will be very noticeable. A small crack in the block will often cause a small amount of coolant loss, but will otherwise have little effect on how the engine runs, and not deposit much water in the oil. As the crack worsens, you end up with a lot of moisture out the tailpipe, a dead cylinder, combustion chamber washing (wherein the piston top and combustion chamber are washed clean of carbon), and water in the oil.

My F-2 had a very minute crack in the block for many, many years that caused very little problems. If the engine became good and warm on a hot summer day, it would lose a little coolant, but that was all. Eventually, the crack grew to the point it developed a dead cylinder, and was losing a lot of coolant. I ended up pulling the engine and having the block "stitched". That was 27 years ago. Still no issues with coolant loss to this day.

 

I am getting oil in the radiator as well - this needs some intervention. It is up on the rack draining fluids now.

 

Please keep us updated. I'm no expert but that almost seems like a head gasket issue with that kind of leakage "all of a sudden". But then again the crack could happen all of a sudden as well.

 

...not too much worse for the wear getting the heads off - just one broken bolt. Copper gaskets are pretty good with no major compromises. It is probably a cracked block.

 

That sucks

 

Are you sure you don't see any washing marks on the head gasket? Is it a solid copper head gasket, or a copper sandwich with fiber center? Copper gaskets are the most likely to leak. Were the head bolts all tight?

 

They are solid copper. If you think that there is hope, I can wrench the new ones on - it is only an hour, or so. I have some fel-pro ones coming, FWIW. They chambers are pretty full of carbon, so I will give them a nice brushing. All of the bolts were very tight - my impact gun would not get most of them free until I started them by hand.

 

What do the piston's tops look like? Pic? Any cylinders look unusually clean, either pistons or combustion chambers?

Copper isn't as forgiving as the FelPro "blue" composition type head gaskets. Could be you just need to clean the surfaces and put on new gaskets. Might be worth pulling the intake manifold to see if there are any obvious signs of a leak in the valve chest.

 

They are all pretty carbon encrusted and nasty. There are not any that look steam cleaned or clean at all. I have not had much exhaust that looks blue or white, so if this was a head gasket thing it did not get into the combustion chambers much.

There is a good amount of oil in the radiator, which scares me. Usually pressure has to get that in there, right?

 

I can't think how oil could get into the water, short of a crack in the block near the oil pump. There just aren't the oil passages running up into the heads like an OHV. Are you sure it's oil in the radiator? Could it have been in the system from earlier?

 

Take the heads and have them checked for warp. Then put new felpro gaskets on it. I would say those old gaskets are compromised . Looking at it from this distance. Also. Re tap the bolt holes and get new head bolts.

 

You should never "tap" the bolt holes, they get cleaned with a "chaser". The threads in the deck are a tighter than normal spec, and a normal tap will remove metal it shouldn't. Chaser taps are cheap and are especially a good idea if someone has put thread sealants on the head bolts, that has hardened and is making the threads tight. That can give false torque readings. Good idea to clean the bolts' threads well too, with a wire brush.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/p...1680/overview/

The head bolts are usually OK for re-use, but if they are corroded or the threads look bad, get NOS replacements. Length and thread class are important, especially on the blind holes.