1991LX5.0

Well a couple days ago i tried to start the car and it wouldn't turn over so i ended up finding out that the #2 cylinder was filled with water. I just pulled the heads off and this is what i found


This is the #2 cylinder and the exact same thing happened on the #3 cylinder. Does anyone have any idea what caused this? I scraped down the old gaskets very carefully and made sure the surface was very clean and i am also using head studs and followed the torquing sequence very carefully. Are their any tips you guys can give me for putting the new ones on. Is there any cleaner or anything I should wipe the surfaces down with before putting the new gaskets down?

XSRACINGGT

did you blow a head gasket, and then the water cam in through the water jackets? That would be my guess. flush your block though. I would do that to get all the crap out of it if any got in to the water jackets in the block.

1991LX5.0

yes thats exactly what happened but does anyone have any clue why it happened? I finished my H/C/I swap only about a month ago and this happened already. Is there anything i can do to further clean the mating surface? Maybe brake clean or alcohol? I know the surfaces are straight and im using the best gaskets i could find and torqued them down exactly how i was supposed to so the only thing i can think of was the surface wasnt totally clean, i scraped it down and then wiped it all down with a lint free rag, any ideas?

live4motocross11

ya after u clean the surface up u can clean it off with brake cleaner

marx91

it sounds like maybe you had detonation from a lean conditon, do you know what kind of a/f ratio
you have? whats your timing set at? when you have a s/c its a good idea to get a wide band sensor

XSRACINGGT

what head gaskets you using? A friend of mine used the expensive fel pro race gaskets and blew 3 sets in 6 months. Was totally puzzled by why it was happening. He has AFR 185s, 331 DSS Stroker kit, Vortech S trim, 12 pounds of boost. He went back to the regular fel pro gaskets and he hasnt blown them in a year so far. just a thought bro.

1991LX5.0

Im using fel pro 9333-1 which are supposed to be the best ones for boost, i did alot of research onhead gasketswbefore my H/C/I swap. I know it wasnt detonating because i only took it for a few test drives to see if there were any problems then took it right to the tuner. They set it at a very safe A/F and timing and i never heard it detonate

1991LX5.0

and for a little background info I never had any problems before the day it happened. I never had white smoke out of the exhaust or anything. I Went and picked my car up from the garage i park it at and drive it home maybe 2 miles i never got on it or anything. Then i came back out a half hour later and went to start it and nothing, the cylinder was filled with water and wouldnt let it spin over

marx91

did you buy your heads new? lay straight edge across the heads to see if theres any warpage,
there are some felpro gaskets that ppl have problems with

1991LX5.0

Yeah their brand new butill check them