Possible external leak in head Gasket

mpanten · #1 (**permalink**) 02-26-2011, 01:56 PM

Here's what I got. I have an anluminum head and block AFR heads, Dart block.
What Im seeing is some oil seeping out near the tab on the head gasket. Not much but i can see it. The car has been sitting all winter and I dont see any contamination in the oil of antifreeze. has anyone else had this happen? Please tell me this is normal, I just had these re done last spring!!

Michael C Henry · #2 (**permalink**) 02-26-2011, 02:08 PM

Could it be those pesky intske gaskets seeping and running around under the edge of the head? I had FelPro Print-O-Seal intake gaskets give up on my engine. My coolant fliud ended up inside the engine in the oil. I went with the hard to get extra expesive Victor Renz intake gaskets. Try pressure testing the coolant system and watch.

madmaxx · #3 (**permalink**) 02-26-2011, 02:09 PM

Oil permeates everything overtime especially our engines assembled with "dated" technology. You do not have a problem. GM,Ford, Toyota has figured out how to make a non-permeable gasket but for our cobras just wipe with a paper towel. It may very well be your valve cover gaskets eitherway no problem unless you ask a mechanic hungry for work.

mpanten · #4 (**permalink**) 02-26-2011, 02:32 PM

Mike, I pretty sure it's not the intake, I can clearly see where it coming from. Max, thanks, thats what I figured.

Tom Cimino · #5 (**permalink**) 02-26-2011, 05:14 PM

Something similar happened to me with my 302. When the car sat for a while, I would get antifreeze hanging on the tab of the head gasket. After the engine was warmed up, no leak. Could have sworn it was the head gasket. Found the intake gaskets crushed and pulled in slightly when I pulled the manifold during a cam change. Iron block and heads, but the gaskets were Print-O-Seals.

mpanten · #6 (**permalink**) 02-26-2011, 07:34 PM

Tom,

It could be but im betting, for now, that it is just the temperature fluctuations and the fact that it has been sitting for 4 and a half months. I always seem to develope more leaks when im not driving then when I am flogging the tar out out of it. I guess that means it was ment to be driven.

Tom Wells · #7 (**permalink**) 02-27-2011, 05:51 AM

mpanten,

Quote:

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

-Alexander Pope,
An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733

Tom