I've got a little bit of a problem here. Coolant is leaking into the oil pan, and i've taken off the intake completely, and it's not coming through the valley, so it's through the cylinders. I ask the guy I bought the engine from, and the only thing he can think of is that when they had to modify the cometic head gaskets to make them work with the Jesel rocker system. Do you guys think this is possible? I know if there is a head gasket problem, this could happen while the car is running, but this happens with i'm just filling the radiator while it's sitting there.

I'll be taking the heads off tomorrow morning, so I can see if it's the heads or a problem with the block itself. This project is getting to be one expensive problem after another.

Also, for those running this size of engine, what head gaskets are you using? My block is using a 4.030 bore, and I can't find a thing for it.

 

I would be willing to bet there is a crack/hole/fracture on the oil pan rail of the block from either the clearencing done for the crank or if it has splayed bolts one of them could be tapped into a water jacket.
What was the reason the engine was for sale?

 

The guy wanted to build a larger engine for his application, so he sold this one. I don't think it's a crack that low in the block, because when I fill radiator up, I can hear it pretty much waterfall into the oil pan. When the pan is empty, you can hear it pouring into the pan and hitting, not like it's just sliding down the side or something like that.

 

I don't have a stroker, but when you have a coolant leak on one it is usually because someone f-ed up their cleancing for the rods or crank and got a little to close to the water jackets.

 

Sounds like a clearance problem to me. The bad thing is your not going to like the solution, you basically have to take the motor out down to a short block and do about a 1" fill of the bottom of the water jackets with hardblock.

Bret

 

If there is a problem with the block itself, and not just a gasket, then I don't know what i'm going to do. I may try and sell the entire car off and forget about it, or see about fixing the problem myself. I'm into this probject about 20k now with shop fees and parts. I may just find another block and have it setup, and use that one instead, not sure.

 

My money is on the clearance grinding hitting water at the bottom of the cyl's. That's why I won't build a 396. If that's it ya will have to weld it up then fill the block to the bottom of the freeze plug holes.

 

I have a 383 stroker, and i used the cometic head gaskets, havent had any problem with them