Hey,

I have the ARP studs, and I can't recall what torque setting I put them at. I seem to recall torquing them to 60 ft lbs. How did you come up with 73 ft lbs? I haven't installed my cams yet so I still have the chance to increase them slightly....

On a side note, I was going to get the JWT cams, are you using stock, or some aftermarket cam?

Chris

 

70 ftlbs on the head studs....60ftlbs on the main studs

 

Charles I'm sorry to hear this man. But no fear I'm sure in no time at all you will have your motor rebuilt better, stronger, and faster than ever. James

 

That sucks Charles, hope you get it running ASAP and get on that 700+rwhp beast.

Does this mean you will have to take it easy on the motor until the headgaskets get broken in or do they not require a break-in?

I blame your dyno.

 

+1...damm shame though.

 

Sucks to hear this news. What a difference a day makes. If I were a betting man, I would say the poor surface preparation was a big contributing factor. You are pushing more whp than most... curious as to what boost yielded 575? The pressure combined with the uneven surface and lack of spray could all lead to a possible blown headgasket. I know you are using the knock amp, and I would assume the headphones as well to monitor knock. If you did not hear knock through the headphones and are still running fairly conservative timing combined with 100+ octane, I think this could be easily ruled out. Sorry I missed your call. Give me a call today.

 

Very true indeed. Pushing any car to this much power, no matter how well engineered, can result in failure. The difference between 500 and 600whp is tremendous, in terms of stress and fatigue of the motor.

Thanks for sharing with us.

Interestingly enough, your coolant overflow problem is definately related to the closed deck design, and minimal cooling jacketing on the AEBS sleeve. I think this creates too much pressure in the cooling system. With the Darton sleeves, they retain much of the water coolant jacket area, so the coolant has a more OEM'ish flow through the heads, which I am speculating would result in less coolant pressure in the system.

Good luck Charles.

Sharif

 

the block needs to be decked after the final bore and hone on the cylinders.

 

heh. yea i kinda wish I would have went ahead and decked anyway... but you woulda had to seen how close it was... normally I am extremely picky but in a sleeved block situation I was going with the experienced of others... I have only built 4 non-factory sleeved blocks in my life and each time I followed the experienced advice of others and never had a problem.

I do not blame my machinist, he was only speaking from his experience (which i promise far exceeds mine or anyone elses here) and no one will guarentee a perm headgasket seal when using aftermarket sleeves.

gq: the sleeves themselves have no effect on cooling pressure. the excessive coolant pressure in my car is the result of the blown headgasket. AEBS sleeves do not restrict coolant flow thru the engine... the headgasket is the restriction if anything with its very small pin holes that line up with the drilled channels in the AEBS sleeves. The only way the AEBS sleeves effect the cooling system is by not allowing as much flow at the top of the cylinder wall due to a closed deck design. This however should not be an issue, as several factory engines are closed deck. Such as the 2JZ-GTE and the 3S-GTE. I would prefer to have the best of both worlds... but its should be just fine and to date I havent seen any problems with my cooling system... given I only went 1400 miles... but when my headgasket was in 1 piece I couldnt have found a more perfect setup 350z powerplant to drive.

 

interesting, ideally your deck and heads should be milled. the deck needs to be milled for straigthness, parallelness to the main bore, and to get the surface finish you need. even if it doesn't need milling, the shop could've just checked the straightness by simply running a feeler gauge across the deck. that way at least you know it's within spec instead of relying on your eyecrometer.

 

Phunk. I remember a lil while ago i asked did you decked the block you said naw i don't need too O_o Anywayz this is the hardest part of your job. TROUBLESHOOTINGTROUBLESHOOTING

 

Tread lightly Z33

 

way to pour salt on an open wound....you wouldn't happen to be a motivational speaker, would you?

 

Yes i will young grasshopper lol. I never thought about public speaking CaliB maybe in the future O_o Lmao. Charles know i mean no harm hes car is going to be running in no time at all :-)

 

trust me i am very familiar with all the processes. the deck was checked and the slight unevenness was checked as well. the specs that it was within he felt comfortable with. having built at least 20 engines problem free with this machinist i felt comfortable with what he was ok with. once again **** happens, we thought we would get away with it. this time we will deck it... if i use this block again.

 

I am not sugesting that that what I am about to say is correct, just thinking out loud.

I think that 70ft-lb is not enough tension with ARP + molly. (ARP's recomendation)

OE tension is first pull = 72ft-lb then loosen off
Next pull to 26 to 32 ft-lb then a further 90deg turn.

I know that the OE studs are stretch studs but I would bet that there would be more tension applied after the 90deg than 70ft-lb

Funny thing is I have carried out this opperation many times but I have never checked what the final torque is at the 90deg.

The sealant product recomened by Aebbs is hylomar blue

 

Actually with the 90 degree it brings them close to 70ftlbs.

 

Phunk, the reason I mentioned the coolant flow issue, is becuase Gurgen had the same problem....overflowing coolant due to too much pressure. He pulled the heads, and check everything, and the sleeves did not sink, his headgasket was intact.

 

Sharif,

When we meet with Gurgen at the "Street Fury" shoot in Santa Monica
he was trying to sort out if he had a bad Head Gasket...

Wld350z Tony had suggested examining plugs and viewing the Cylinders through the Plug holes with a lighted Fiber optic -

Last I heard was one Cylinder was Bright as a new nickle.. ( Coolant entering
chamber )

Of course I may have gotten the wrong story - Maybe have Gurgen give us
his story of the steps he went through in finding the problem of water being
forced into the OverFlow tank.

Cheers Amy -

 

All I know is that based on Gurgen's experience, and now Phunks....I would be going Darton. But who knows about Darton either, since nobody to my knowledge has installed one...or at least posted about it.

It's really great when people share their experiences...good and bad....to help us all learn.