Well the motor made it to 812 miles before any major problems. Long story short built short block with eagle rods, arais 8.6 to 1's, JWT cams, ferrea valve train and valve springs, std Arp head and main studs with cosworth headgaskets. Greddy Twin At 15.5 psi I got a windsheild full of antifreeze last night. Hard 4th gear pull 6500rpm SPLAT. So what are my options?? Pull the heads and do the L19 studs? What kind of head gasket should I run now? I think I will just yank the motor out to do this much easier to work on the engine outside the engine on these cars. Looking for options and ideas guys so any comment is welcome. The tune was safe, done by ROger at Japtrix.

Thanks!!

Ryan

 

again I think the problem isn't the studs but the headgaskets. Cosworth HG's are nothing more than cometic.

 

I understand the cosworths are rebadge cometic's. What makes you feel it is not the studs? I also have the SVR Tech Head strengthing mod as well, guess it did not make it strong enough. lol.

Ryan

 

Yah ...I had the motor pulled to redo the gaskets also , much easier . Go with the HKS gasket , L19's or 1/2 inch studs . Do the PathFinder cooling mod in the back of the block also

 

I got a set of Cosworth gaskets for cheap if you want em. Even though it appears you might be going another rout? PM me if interested

 

Bill did the better studs solve your problem?

 

So far it has , along with the HKS gasket . The HKS has a stopper ring , where the edge of the gasket is folded over to make it stronger . The L19's you trq. down to 90ft lb's . Thats 30 ft lb's more than stock . The Pathfinder cooling mod will help keep the motor cooler when boosting it .

 

I put in the casting plug mod also , but not sure if it would or will help at all .

 

.....which are not much different than OEM.

 

I have been running 16-20 psi on the stock head gaskets and L17 head studs. I thing you issue may be detonation or overadvanced timing, which beat the hell out of the headgasket..Are you 100% positive it was a headgasket??

 

Damn that's a horror story..

 

Things to look at are bore of headgaskets in the event the block is over bore and were the heads resurfaced to ensure they were flat during the original build?

 

MRC- I am pretty sure the HG is toast. I have small carbon bits floating in my coolent. My timing is on the safe side.

Bill- I am going to look into the bypass mod as well.

Zexy- IT IS A HORROR STORY!!! But this is the price we pay to go fast. My biggest bum out right now is I am moving and the closing on my house keeps getting shifted around, Stupid US Homes!!! So i do not want to tear into this and have to move shortly. Closing could be as quick as 2 weeks or a month I just need to lock in a date and get this done!

Ryan

 

Heads were dead flat, block was decked everything wa done to spec Gus. I know roger had fun tuning this beast. I think I am gonna run the better 7/16th studs with HKS gaskets.

RYan

 

Thats the funny thing about mine when it went . I was logging the stock knock sensor . When street tuning I saw knock one time . I pulled one more degree of timing in that area and never saw it again . I finished street tuning it and put it one the dyno and finished the tune . I never saw knock on the dyno either . The gasket went while on the dyno and I noticed it over heating on the way home

 

Wish you the best of luck Ryan. Keep us updated on the details.

 

odd thing is i do not overheat at all, just fill the overflow tank aka puke tank then splash out the vented hood onto the windsheild. Both times it happen the cap to the puke tank was off and the level was about a inch below the top.

 

OK just a shot, when I had my heads checked they were slightly out so I had them resurfaced as well as the block of course. I think the 96mm Cometic gasket might be too small for overbore blocks leaving a slight edge hanging over and gets beat up.

I am going with L19 Studs and HKS headgaskets myself. Good luck.

 

thanks Gus, Would i be able to source the l19's from you and the hks gaskets? Pm me.

Ryan

 

For that boost level you should have had the block drilled for 1/2" head studs when you built the motor. The best you can do now without removing the motor and drilling the block is to use the L-19 head studs. Definetly go with the HKS head gaskets.

JET