I am changing a head gasket on an 8BA and am unable to get all of the coolant out of the block, by draining the radiator. So some of my head bolts will be installing into holes that have coolant in them. Is this just normal? Oil the threads, apply Permatex #2 sealer on the shank and put it in? As their is much discussion on the correct installation of head bolts on these engines relative to leaks, I have never read anything about the presence of the coolant in the blind hole? Thanks for any help.
put on some glasses, put a rag around your air nozzle, and blast it out. Or roll up a corner of a shop towel, and soak it up.
So I am hearing that I need to get the coolant out of the block so the bolt holes are dry. I did try the air blasting and the rag soaking, but I guess I will try harder. There is a lot in there. Draining my radiator does not drain the coolant from the rear water jackets in the block.
Jack up/raise the rear of the car. Curious why the block won't drain; radiator too high, engine angle, plugged water jackets etc?
Jacking up is a good idea. Thanks. That is easy to do. I guess the main thing I was looking for was that I DO in fact need to worry about the coolant in the holes. I will get it out. Thanks to everyone for the sanity check.
If your radiator is empty and you still have coolant in the rear of the block, your engine must be at a 45 degree angle. It's one long water jacket from front to back, and once the radiator is empty it should drain down to within an inch or so of the bottom of the block. Maybe you have some crust in there blocking the jackets.
Ya maybe I have some crud? I don't think my engine is at some weird angle. I built it 2 or 3 deg down in the back relative to the frame. Don't remember exactly. I will get the water out. I was just concerned about installing head bolts into wet holes. Sounds like that is not something normally done. I guess I am always expecting something unusual working with a Flathead. This is the 1st one I have worked with. Get the water out. Will do.
Quick....go grab the turkey baster out of the kitchen and use that.....or your anti-freeze checker to suck it out....
I believe all 48 of the head bolt holes go into the water jacket..Permatex goes on the bolt threads and under the heads, clean threads as best you can. wire brush bolts and thread chase the holes in the block. Its gonna be fun torquing all 48 bolts to spec; after going around three times.
After drained and blown out, spray with Brake Kleen, it'll flush stuff out in the threads and evaporate for your sealant to work.
DO NOT use a thread tap to clean out the stud/bolt holes in the block. The threads are supposed to be tighter tolerance than a common thread, and you will ruin this. You can use an old head bolt with a slot cut through the threads in one spot to clean. Many leaky bolts have been caused by an amateur who used a thread tap to clean his block.
So I ended up siphoning out the coolant. That stuff tastes really bad. Why a dog would want to drink it I have no idea. Out of curiosity as to why the block would not drain as expected I took off the water pump. Found nothing in there. Looks good. With the water pump off everything drains out of the block. I ran a thread cleaning (not thread cutting) tap in all of the holes. I am in the process of installing all of the cleaned bolts (without the head in place) with engine oil on the threads and verified they go in as far as they should. Sounds like I need to clean off that engine oil from the threads so the permatex #2 will seal them?
I figured out why my engine was not draining properly. To drain out of the water pumps, into the lower radiator hose area, there is a little drain hole, in the pump, right by the lowest water pump to block bolt hole. The one inside the hose outlet. That hole had sealer in it. New head gasket is installed and no more exhaust leaking into the coolant.
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