opinions

[Kevin1989]

need opinions...

I finally got a saturday off to work on the car... it ended up getting a coolant leake on the passenger side behind the head... without really inspecting i assumed it was the head gasket. Now that i have the LIM off i can see a path that coolant is traveling down the back of the block to right where i thought the coolant was coming from originally. it looks like the back of the LIM gasket just was slowly leaking... my question is it probably a good idea to pull the heads off anyway and get them checked or just bolt the lower and everything back up and go? i could be driving the car tonight if i dont hve the pull the heads but is it worth the risk?

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

If you saw it leaking from above the head gasket, you should be ok with just the intake gaskets. You probably should change the oil though, since if it was leaking from out of a water jacket there's a good chance it could have leaked into the lifter valley unless you got lucky and it was leaking from the outside of the gasket and not inside. Otherwise it's just up to you if you wanna bother with pulling the heads...you're almost there anyways and then you'd have the peace of mind knowing your head gaskets are fresh.

[Kevin1989]

well, i replaced intakes and im taking the chance, ill let you kinow in a little bit what happens.

[sean]

I would have chanced it too. Change the oil for sure though.

[93RedNotch]

Did you just put new head gaskets on it over the winter? If it was leaking from the lim why bother? +1 on changing the oil, I've always heard it's a good idea after you pull the lower intake to change the oil anyways.

[03z06vette]

while you have the upper off check the pcv screen in the rear of the lower, if its clogged or restricted at all it will continue blowing the gasket. dont use RTV (you may already know this) use the felpro fitted ones. and please dont use any of the right stuff!! also do a compression\leak down test that will give u a good idea of the head gasket integrity.

[1987coupe]

why cant you use rtv ?

[sean]

lol the right stuff. Doesnt like to come back apart.... ever. lol