How can i tell if head is warped?

[clayton]

So after investigating coolant dripping between back of block and tranny, I traced the leak to the bottom corner of driver side cylinder head, where it meets the block right above the tranny bellhousing. Im assuming I have a failed gasket. Before I tear this thing down, I am wandering if I have to worry if my head is warped or if it is just the gasket. Heads are aluminum trick flows. The engine only has roughly 6k miles on it, so that is why im concerned about the head itself may be the problem. Any way to tell? I dont want to put this thing all back together just to have the same problem. Thankyou everyone. 1995 331 here.

 

[ttocs]

remove them and put a straight edge on them and then take a light and shine under it and look for light.

 

[Terrorist 5.0]

Well based on what you have said, sounds like you are going to have to take it apart anyway, because I can’t think of anything that would leak coolant in that area other than the head gasket.

If I were you, take it apart and just check the heads while you are at it. I typically use a feeler gauge instead of light, but a straight edge is necessary.

 

[clayton]

I've never had a failed head gasket before. When one goes, do you typically still do both heads? Or should I just leave the other side alone?

 

[RAU03MACH]

take the heads to a machine shop let them check
they will also magnaflux the heads and check for cracks
it takes one crack in a water jacket to screw your day up

 

[Terrorist 5.0]

I've never had a failed head gasket before. When one goes, do you typically still do both heads? Or should I just leave the other side alone?

Personally I would do both since you are there anyway, plus any good mechanic will advise you to do both in the case that they are repairing it, not for more money, but for an absolute guaranteed solution to the issue. If you overheat enough to blow one, the other must have been close.

 

[duh09]

Before you tear apart, retorque the head bolts/studs. If it’s just a little seepage from am improperly torqued bolt, the gasket is probably ok and could seal once tight.

Are the heads new? It would be very unlikely for them to be warped out of the box and the only way they’re going to warp bad enough to cause a leak would be from some extreme overheating.

I’d lean more towards bad gasket/bad install rather than a warped head on that fresh of a build. If you do end up tearing it apart, inspect the head gasket very well before tossing it to see if you can find a defect.

 

[clayton]

Ill try tightening down the bolts and see what happens. Heads have the same amount of miles as engine, about 6k. The car did overheat once pretty bad, during a tune session about 3 months ago. But every thing has seemed fine since then. Thanks man

 

[96blak54]

Overheated?.....yeah probably be best to remove heads and regasket with new bolts. The heads themselves most likely just fine, but good practice says to get them decked.

The over heating cause the bolts to strech futher than they were designed for and to top it off they were hotter than they were designed for. With aluminum heads, you should be using a torque to yield bolt desighned to stretch with the expasion rate of the aluminum head. We gotta look at any bolt like its a spring. Every bolt stretches and retracts. When we tighten a bolt, it stretches, but has a working limit. Add more heat causes the aluminum head to expand more, stretch the bolts more, and the added heat pretty much sealed the deal for the bolts to give up.

Not sure what head bolts was use in your build, but i highly recommend ARP head studs and only purchased from sumitt racing. There are a ton of Chinese copies floating around.

 

[clayton]

Thanks man. I'm going to take a look at it today, see if re torquing the bolts tightens it up. If not ill be pulling the heads, having them checked at machine shop and putting on new gaskets. Its literally just a slow drip from the bsck corner facing the firewall on driver side. It runs down top of bell and drips from there. No coolant in the oil whatsoever. I just really dont want to pull the entire top of the motor off, its such a pain. Plus I've never taken these heads off, and have no experience with re assembling the rocker arms and such when its put back together. Unfortunately I didnt build this engine, I bought the car with it already done. The deepest ive gotten with it is upper and lower Intake manifold off ( the engine had a blown out lower intake manifold gasket at fhe rear, " China wall".) What i know about it is the guy had the engine built, then the car sat for 10 years in storage. Never drove it. Since then, its had about 6 thousand miles put on it. Fun car when its not leaking anything

 

[highplace11]

take the heads to a machine shop let them check
they will also magnaflux the heads and check for cracks
it takes one crack in a water jacket to screw your day up

+1 Always... Learned the hard way one too many times...

Mark