As I was driving back to college my car overheated, I limped it the rest of the way with some water I had. Didn't drive it at all and limped it home. Once on the lift, I saw that the coolant leak was coming out of the back 3 bottom head bolts. I took a different vehicle back to school but not sure what's wrong with it. Not sure if it is a warped head or just failed thread sealant. I haven't gotten a chance to check the oil. Kinda scared for when I fully rip it apart but does anyone have suggestions on what to do first or what it could be?


1995 Camaro Z28, manual, AFR ported heads, mystery cam, CAI, Headers, True dual 3" exhaust

 

Is this a freshly rebuilt engine or one that has been together for a while? How hot did it get?

 

It had a partial top end rebuild after I bent a pushrod. Rebuild was completed in November of 2023 with new heads, pushrods, and roller rockers. Definitely got hotter than I would like, probably around 270-280F.

 

You can pull the leaking fasteners out one at a time, put sealer on them and retorque them or put some stop leak in the radiator. I've had the same problem once. I would reseal one fastener and another would start to drip. The shop that built it had me put stop leak in and that fixed it.

 

Over my spring break I got the chance to work on it and get it back together. I took off the valve cover and took out the header to get access to a majority of the head bolts. I got a torque wrench on them and realized they were probably only torqued to 40 ft lbs (not sure how). I took them out cleaned them up, put new thread sealant on, and put them back in. Pressure tested fine and haven't given me any problems on the 1500 miles since. Thank you very much for the help on the matter and I'm just glad it wasn't a gasket or warped head.