Cylinders full of coolant on rebuild, cracked head!!

[fairweather]

Hello, was getting ready to start up the engine after many months of waiting for this and that and ran into this little problem.

When installing the TB I tried to turn it over twice per Bently but ran into quite a bit of resistance. The crank turned just fine before it was installed in the van and the cam turned smoothly when the lifters were removed so I know it wasn't that. After filling it with coolant I tried to turn over the crank again after removing the TB and much resistance. So I pulled the GP thinking they would release the pressure and coolant sprayed out the holes!

Something told me that wasn't how it was suppose to be. Pulled the head and all 4 bores were FULL of coolant No little leak, they were full as well as the intake mani.

It's the correct gasket, new head bolts torqued to 44 plus 1/4 and 1/4. Head was rebuilt, and block was hot tanked/inspected, no cracks etc, it would have to be a huge full length crack if it were leaking through a crack.

Did I just really fark up the head install? Can't think of anything else so I ordered ARPs and a new HG and will try again if no one has any insights or has had similar exp.

Thanks, Tom

[jtanguay]

how many beers did you have when you filled it with coolant??? j/k 

maybe you installed the head gasket upside down? but still that wouldn't explain the coolant in the cylinders... people have actually ran their engines with upside down head gaskets and it will actually run (as far as i remember)

so either you have a major crack, or you farked up real good lol.  just remember too that the coolant is going to wash away any oil from the cylinder walls (probably good as it will help seat the rings quickly) but i would remove the oil pan and wash it out real good to get any coolant residue out.  the water in the coolant will turn to hydrochloric acid in the oil over time...  however it should boil off if you run the car real good for its first run, but the glycol can't be good mixed with the oil either.

[fairweather]

how many beers did you have

Apparently not enough, I had a hell of a time getting the coolant down through the intake mani, you'd think they would have designed a better way of getting it into the engine

[Vincent Waldon]

how many beers did you have

Apparently not enough, I had a hell of a time getting the coolant down through the intake mani, you'd think they would have designed a better way of getting it into the engine

Always hard to tell about humour over the internet so I'll just ask what others are thinking.... did you really add coolant to the engine via the intake manifold?

I ask because we've seen lots of stuff on this site so you never quite know...   

[fairweather]

did you really add coolant to the engine via the intake manifold?

Well, how do you do it??


It only seemed like I did since there was so much of it in the bores.

ARP studs and new HG here via next day air, gotta love UPS. I did run into some sticky threads when I went back and cleaned them so I hope it was a mis-torqued issue.

[Vincent Waldon]

did you really add coolant to the engine via the intake manifold?

Well, how do you do it??

Whew.... had me going. 

At least once a month someone on Vortex innocently adds oil to his tranny via the timing inspection hole... so you just never know. 

[fairweather]

So I just reinstalled the head with ARPs and new head gasket, refiled with H2O and left off the intake mani to make sure it didn't happen again.

After a few minutes there was water dripping out of #4 intake port!!!

Does this mean I have a seriously cracked head??

Taped up all the port etc and filled with water, I could blow bubbles out of the #4 intake valve stem, ***e.

[myke_w]

It sounds like you have a real problem. Are you saying this is a new rebuild? (how many miles are on it)?

Was the head pressure tested? Was it checked for flatness?

The only way I've seen a head crack is from overheating, heads don't crack for no reason in other words, and that would come out in a pressure test, especially if it's that big of a leak.

Also - you said that coolant came out of the glow plug holes? how many did it come out of? in other words, how many cylinders had coolant in them?

You're going to have to rip it down and really go over it with a fine tooth comb anyway but I think I'd start shopping for a good head.

What engine is this by the way?

[fairweather]

Appears to be a problem with a valve guide/seal?? Don't really know the internal structure of the head but I didn't think that was even possible. New rebuild on a 1Z and the guy who rebuilt the head is taking care of everything, he's got a stellar reputation and this is just one of those things.

I believe that it is only leaking through #4 intake but over time it filled up the manifold and spilled over into the other ports, its' not a HG issue.