native1031

All my cooling components work but i feel that its still over heating. About how much am I looking at to get the heads tested. I was told there could be a coolant leak.

95z28onjuice

there is a liquid that can be added to the coolant and a pressure pump that sucks up the coolant and tells you if the heads are leaking coolant. i use to use it at the dealership i worked at a few years back. im looking in my tool box for the pump but i caint find it at the moment. The stuff works great and will save alot of time and money

1badeagle

How hot is it running? You could always go to a lower temperature thermostat. You could also try water wetter as well. WHen you have the heads off it could be a good time to replace them or have them worked over while they are off.

Dustin

kd5icr

I agree that replacing the heads would be a good idea. I have a bone stock 305 in my 58 Z28. I was going to replace the valve stem seals. When I got the valve covers off I was blown away by what the PO did to it. They brazed yes brazed the rocker nuts to the studs. That in effect rendered the heads useless also add to it that it was leaking water a little into the engine(big smoke). So I went to a local engine seller and picked up a set of freashly rebuilt 350 heads for 90 bucks apiece. So now I have a lot better breathing on my top end with bigger valves, larger CC volumn.

quickchicken

depends on how many miles are on the motor. a fresh set of heads on a low end with miles will wipe out the motor in a matter of a few months. if its low miles , less than 25,000 you can do this but if its up near 80,000 or better its useless. the fresh heads will kill the rings.

kd5icr

How do you figure that a new set of heads will wipe out a motor? Like the ones I got, I mistakenly said they were for a 350 when I should have said 305, but they are the same heads that I took off, there was nothing wrong with the bottom end. I have no smoke, no oil loss better fuel milage. So as far as I can tell no downside.

OVA1

Whuh?

With all due respect; that is simply not true.

For max compression, on any given setup, both rings and valves need to be sealing correctly...

But getting a valve-job will not 'kill the rings'.

quickchicken

it happened to me. i cracked a head on my non oil burning reasonably strong 307, found a fresh set of heads and within that year it went from reliable healthy to boat anchor.

every eng builder i have talked to when this subject came up has said the same thing i have.

kd5icr

I hate to say this and I mean no disrespect but, You said you cracked a head, what else happened? there is always more to the story than that. You said reasonbly strong, what does that mean? I am also willing to bet those engine builders told you the things they could do for you IF you "spent" the money with then. People have been doing head swaps for years on engines and never had a problem. You just had a run of bad luck with yours. That in no way means it will happen to everybody.

quickchicken

it was a combination of lack of knowledge and lack of resources. T stat went south so i yanked it and it was late at night with no parts stores avail. had a small leak and had no choice but to drive it to work and re fill it at intervals ( i lived a long way at the time from my job) and the last time i made the mistake (heres where the lack of knowledge comes in) of filling the hot eng not running with water and cracked the head. before that the eng ran strong.

i replaced the cracked head with a set freshly built and the motor went south after that. i had been driving this car regularly for a long time with the said motor with no issues.