head gastket break in period?

I just blew a head or maybe both head gaskets. My question to you is. Is there a break in period for a head gasket after its been replace, If so how long?

Thanks :mad:

"break-in period for a head gasket"?

No such tomato.

You have a problem. I'd suspect improper torque sequence... warped deck surfaces and/or the wrong gasket. What makes you so sure you have a blown head gasket?
I always retorque after the first heat cycling but it's just my compulsive nature..... not a necessity.


-Mindgame

Hopefully never... Okay but seriously, never want a headgasket to do anything but seal between the two surfaces.

HTH,
-Christian

I think the concept of "break in" is a bit over-rated. I think back to the experience with building my engine, and when it was just about done, it was set up on the engine dyno and the assembly completed. Then they started it, put the engine dyno under low load, and let it run for about an hour. Changed the oil and filter, check a few torque items, and then proceeded to make at least 25 dyno pulls, several of them spraying a 275-shot of nitrous. I guess the one hour of "warm up" was the break-in period...... :D.

I used TPIS standard 350 gasket, .029 and torqued them to 68ft lb. in sequence as stated in Chiltons. Also both mating surfaces where milled for trueness and double checked prior to assembly. I'm using Twisted wedge heads, total comp was 10.7 to 1.

Is there a different torque setting for aluminum heads?

How did your head gaskets blow; that is, what are the symptoms?

Detonation can take out head gaskets really fast. Obviously this isn't the cause if you have a leak between a coolant passage and the outside world, but if you've got a break-down of the cylinder seal it's a possible cause that needs to be investigated.

Good luck!

Well it all started after the ecm swap from MAF to SD, so that's where I think I ran into a lean spot by not totally tuning the car before heading down to E-Town for the 2nd EFI shootout that was held on July 13 of last year. On my way back I stoped for gas and the car over heated going as high as 220 degrees and climbing fast. So I stopped, bleed off the pressure filled it up again and it was find until I went to GA in Jan for school it did the samething. And twice once more until now. I changed the waterpump, thermastat, and radiator cap to eliminate any other problems and that did not help. So now that brings use all up to speed. I race this kid in his 2002 WS6 on I-81N and beat him bad, so he tries to do a flyby and I get back on it again beating him once more but up to 145mph so he says. Stop to turn around, looked in my rear veiw mirror smoke was everywhere. I mean it looked like I had smoke grenade. The oil pressure was good
( what a relief). Let the window down all I smelled was antifreeze

I am lucky that the enine didn't lock up due to the fact that it was sucking so much coolant into the cylinders because I had to stop and add water twice on the home too prevent it from overheating.

If you overheated there is a good chance the heads are toast, they may never seal again even if milled, in which case the heads are "soft."

The only "break in period" which Fred mentioned was the retorque process, I believe that is the beauty of TTY head bolts. Otherwise this means running the car for awhile, pulling the valve covers and exaust and torquing everything down again to account for any shifting/settling.

I mean the temp guage started to rise as I was looking at it . I didn't sit there and do nothing, I turned the car off right away. So therefore technically speaking the car did not overheat. The temp was rising and I stopped it from further damage.

Come to think of it I started getting knock counts right after going to e-town. So detination was the cause.

Originally posted by Eric Bryant
How did your head gaskets blow; that is, what are the symptoms?

Detonation can take out head gaskets really fast. Obviously this isn't the cause if you have a leak between a coolant passage and the outside world, but if you've got a break-down of the cylinder seal it's a possible cause that needs to be investigated.

Good luck!
I had a vehicle that would pass a radiator pressure test (i.e. putting 16psi of pressure via an adapter radiator cap and a pump/guage) but pressurize the radiator hose rock hard...kinda like a one-way valve leak. Anyone experience or hear of something like this?....

CAJUN-Z
That is what my car was doing before I blew the head gasket. A friend of mine was also changing his valve springs with the heads on the car, when he put air to the cylinder to keep up the valves the coolant overflow resevoir started to bubble. And his car started to get abnormally hotter even with a a B-Cool radiator.

I just pulled my heads yesterday and found out that a few of the head bolts where pretty easy to crack loose even with a 3/8 ratchet. So if I were you I would retorque the heads, but first pressurize the cylinders by doing what my friend with the air hose or do a leak down test.

maybe someone can tell me if this is a myth or fact-

a break in is USUALY a simplified term for heat cylcing.

this is why you break in gears, but not an A4.

From my understanding, the best way to break in a motor is to let it idle a bit and then give it hell. The moly rings like to seat in heat and be heat cylced.

Wondering if someone can verify.


Also why is it bad to drive at a constant RPM on a fresh motor?:confused: