Tried to get a pick. The bottom of the hole has a nice score, like the bolt was bottomed out and a torque was put on it, causing the gouge.
Did you check the length of the head bolts? Also, have a look to see that they have a small shoulder just under the head, of about 3/8". Just making sure that these are Hemi head bolts, and not just any old grade-8 bolts. I have seen some odd stuff on, and in engines.
If you have a micrometer compare the thickness of the fire ring on both head gaskets. I agree in the one pic that it doesn’t look like it was touched.
In an earlier post you mentioned that you located the contact information for whoever built the engine, were you able to talk to them and if so, what did they have to say?
Were I the builder I would listen and probably give some insight but after sitting 9 years it's out of warranty.
Left a message, no call back yet. I’m in no way shape or form looking for warranty or anything like that. Was hoping he kept paperwork from his builds or can at least remember something from the build. I’ll take whatever info on it that I can get...
I don't know if this has been brought up yet but do you have good oil pressure? My 392 was overheating and it turned out the oil pump needed to be re-primed after the car sat a while. Apparently a common problem on the OE pumps. I changed to a 340 converted pump from Hot Heads. Problem solved, even after winter storage.
Pist-n-broke, not concerned with warranty, interested to find out if builder had block and heads checked for cracks, was the block or heads decked, ect.
A common resurfacing of a block or heads removes 0.010". Your fire ring compression differs by 0.002". I am not sure that is enough to do this, but frankly, I have never explored this as a failure path. I could only speculate, and I do suppose that this could allow combustion gasses by, to a near cooling passage. There are two small ones that are somewhat closer than others. Explore the crack situation. If there are none, put washers on the head bolts and try again.
Sorry for the delay. A very good friend of mine went into Hospice on Thursday and died early this day so have been pre-occupied... I looked at all of the gaskets that I have, Dodge-DeSoto and Chrysler, and all have a hole, however, each different gasket has a different sized hole that I presume is for the purpose of metering water flow. Real hard to know exactly what the gasket manufacturers are thinking. IMO, Chrysler wanted some water moving at that point or the head would not have a hole so the question is only that of quantity. Gary
My condolences on your friend. I have unfortunately gone through this a few times this last year with friends and family. Never seems to get easier.
If even that. Ten of the 11 that I saw go under in last 20-months were all under 45. I am sorry for your loss. It is never easy, irrespective of age.
Of course, we cannot discount that both of those numbers could be indicative of insufficient gasket compression. We have no way of knowing how much material may have been removed from the decks. Early Hemi's are pretty hefty, and can take a decent cut. A lot of engines are like this from back in the day. The six in my Ford got a whopping 0.090" off of the head to get the compression where I wanted it (long story about chamber/dish mismatch).
I would not be able to explain why Chrysler would bother to machine holes in blocks and heads, if they were not needed. Time and tool wear are a thing. I mostly deal with 354's, as they seem to show up more often than others where I am. On all of the "never-apart" ones that I have opened, the factory installed gaskets had tin rings around all cooling passages, and all cooling passages were utilized. None were blocked. I have three pair of 354 heads on or next to the bench right now. All six of them have evidence of a gasket halo around every single passage.
Typical composition gasket compression is about .005 on several non hemi gaskets I have measured….local machine shop says it’s the same on all engines with a 50-60 thousands uncompressed head gasket..
I did find a couple 392 engine builds online, one was on motor tend I believe. The phots showed them using a gasket without the holes and the block DID have holes in that location. They did not have pics of the underside of the heads though...
We're currently missing the uncompressed thickness of these gaskets prior to install. If these were 0.050" thick gaskets, then they did not stand a chance here. The gasket appears to be a Best 595G. Best does not seem to publish specs. I hear that their customer service is good. This might take a phone call.
Best Gasket 9230 Norwalk Blvd Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670 [email protected] phone 888.333.2378 Give them a call and ask them how thick these gaskets are before being installed.
Just called. He said .048 + - prior to install, .043 + - compressed. I’m getting .048 + - after pulling them....
The Jalopy Journal
