It's been 26 years since I put a ford together. Recently I bought a nice running 1995 302, ran fine for 6 months. Did a GT40 head swap for a little more power(and other things) and of course put one gasket on upside down. I used jegs gaskets and they're not marked in any way so I forgot. (if you don't know about sbf head gaskets when you put them on properly it usually looks like one is upside down. But you want the coolant holes in the back).
I ran it a good while and it never read hot on the gauge, when everything was broken in I drove it hard and it blew a hole in the upper radiator hose. Replaced them all. Now that I was driving it harder it would run cool a long time, then temps would shoot up and blow all the coolant out of the overflow in no more than a minute.
So I changed the head gaskets, and it still ran about the same. Just randomly blows coolant out of the overflow.
Did a compression check, all good. No oil and coolant mixing. Out of ideas I put a leakdown tester on and pressurized each cylinder. Every one on the side that had the gasket on wrong will make bubbles out of the radiator. The other side doesn't.
I put on a known good head and it does the same thing, with pressure in the cylinder it bubbles at the radiator.
And I just got the head that was on it with the upside down gasket back from the machine shop and they said it's good.
So that must mean I have cracks in every cylinder on that side, I tore it down and can't find anything.
Now back up to when I pressurized the cylinders, I went out and got another short block from the salvage yard. When I tore that down I noticed the bypass hose on the water pump was rusted off. I'm worried that one was overheated too. It's at the machine shop now. I asked those guys how they find a crack in a cylinder wall and they said it'll show up when it's honed. They are going to bore it.
My concern is that I know I have a crack in 4 of my cylinders and can't find anything. I don't think this shop is going to pressure test it or even use a liquid, they magnaflux with iron powder. They are a good shop so maybe I'm worried too much.
What is the procedure for finding a crack in a cylinder wall? Will they see it easily when boring it? How can I find the cracks in my old block?
Thanks for anything....sorry for the long post.
I ran it a good while and it never read hot on the gauge, when everything was broken in I drove it hard and it blew a hole in the upper radiator hose. Replaced them all. Now that I was driving it harder it would run cool a long time, then temps would shoot up and blow all the coolant out of the overflow in no more than a minute.
So I changed the head gaskets, and it still ran about the same. Just randomly blows coolant out of the overflow.
Did a compression check, all good. No oil and coolant mixing. Out of ideas I put a leakdown tester on and pressurized each cylinder. Every one on the side that had the gasket on wrong will make bubbles out of the radiator. The other side doesn't.
I put on a known good head and it does the same thing, with pressure in the cylinder it bubbles at the radiator.
And I just got the head that was on it with the upside down gasket back from the machine shop and they said it's good.
So that must mean I have cracks in every cylinder on that side, I tore it down and can't find anything.
Now back up to when I pressurized the cylinders, I went out and got another short block from the salvage yard. When I tore that down I noticed the bypass hose on the water pump was rusted off. I'm worried that one was overheated too. It's at the machine shop now. I asked those guys how they find a crack in a cylinder wall and they said it'll show up when it's honed. They are going to bore it.
My concern is that I know I have a crack in 4 of my cylinders and can't find anything. I don't think this shop is going to pressure test it or even use a liquid, they magnaflux with iron powder. They are a good shop so maybe I'm worried too much.
What is the procedure for finding a crack in a cylinder wall? Will they see it easily when boring it? How can I find the cracks in my old block?
Thanks for anything....sorry for the long post.