[steve25]

Have you looked deeply into heads that have been so called “ wide ported “ ?
They still clamp down just fine for high Hp production!

As always head gasket wise when you look at the percentage of failures it’s mostly from the heat of two center exh ports and there far faster rate of expansion and contraction ( sheering) of the gasket.

[Formulas]

Originally Posted by steve25

Have you looked deeply into heads that have been so called “ wide ported “ ?
They still clamp down just fine for high Hp production!

As always head gasket wise when you look at the percentage of failures it’s mostly from the heat of two center exh ports and there far faster rate of expansion and contraction ( sheering) of the gasket.

And often they use hat washers under the bolt head to make it work and any head gasket that doesnt have enough clamp load will fail first at the hottest thinnest point, but go ahead with that awesome logic

[Jay S]

Sam, you mentioned working on resealing the well plugs on your Qjet at the same time that head work happened. I am curious what you did to fix those? That can be tricky too fix, and can create some similar issues with smoke, running rich.

[glhs#116]

Originally Posted by Jay S

Sam, you mentioned working on resealing the well plugs on your Qjet at the same time that head work happened. I am curious what you did to fix those? That can be tricky too fix, and can create some similar issues with smoke, running rich.

LOL. That was actually the one I was nervous about. But after doing the carb I put a new carb base gasket. When I took the carb and intake off again now I found it clean and dry as a bone. I did follow Cliff's advice to drill, tap and insert screw plugs made from cut up bolts. I didn't just epoxy over the top.

Also, the intake runners where I matched them look like they did when I finished with the intake. All dry and clean. I don't think there's anything happening upstream (carb, PCV, etc). The oil that's getting in seems to be happening in the heads in some way.

As I understand it that's really got to be valve seals or those rocker studs. Basically, having verified the oil in the intakes by seeing some actually at the valves on a few ports I'm left with just a few frustrating conclusions:

1. The new valve seals I installed before were bad (maybe hard from sitting on my shelf for years?) or I messed up the install. I doubt I hurt them putting them on since I used the applicator. I now know that none of them rode up. They were all in place. Were they hard? I guess that's possible but I'm having trouble getting too excited about that one...

2. The rocker studs are leaking past the threads. For that to be true it would also have to be the case that when I sealed them with blue loctite that didn't work and when I sealed them with RTV that didn't work. It's possible, I suppose. I'm sure in both cases there was still probably some brakeclean on the head threads (since it's pretty hard to get in there to dry it) and maybe then stuff just didn't set right? Again, I'm sure a lot of people clean threads and then the stuff still sets. But, maybe..

I was really hoping for more of a "smoking gun" when I took the intake off. It was weird to see the intake passages so clean but still see the oil. Unless it came from the valve guides that means that the oil isn't leaving any tracks. And if it doesn't I don't know how I'm supposed to track down what's happening.

Thanks for all the help, though, all!

Sam

[Jay S]

Definitely sounds like a proper fix on the carb wells.

The other possibility that I have not seen mentioned yet is it could be oil getting sucked past the common wall head bolt? It was mentioned I think one bolt boss was thin enough it had a crack. If the rocker studs can have oil sucked last them when they are not sealed up, the head bolt could possibly pull oil in if it was broken thru and not sealed up enough. It probably would not take much, that common wall bolt is at a really high vacuum area at the bowl.

[glhs#116]

Originally Posted by Jay S

Definitely sounds like a proper fix on the carb wells.

The other possibility that I have not seen mentioned yet is it could be oil getting sucked past the common wall head bolt? It was mentioned I think one bolt boss was thin enough it had a crack. If the rocker studs can have oil sucked last them when they are not sealed up, the head bolt could possibly pull oil in if it was broken thru and not sealed up enough. It probably would not take much, that common wall bolt is at a really high vacuum area at the bowl.

Yeah. I think that might have been a candidate if it was only in one runner. I made that tiny breakthrough on the first headbolt bulge I did, which was #3 or #5 depending on which way up I had the head when I started. Whatever I am dealing with is in most holes on both heads. No other breakthroughs happened.

Sam