I am so pissed. I give up on the Mav. I am getting antifreeze out the exhaust, a lot of it. I have removed my heads twice and checked everything out and replaced all gaskets, it looks fine. Replaced my head bolts...they looked tired. I am running 351W heads on a 302. I double checked to make sure I had the right head gaskets. Intake is sealing fine. I should have been driving this car 2 months ago but cant stop the leak. I am assuming at this point that I have a cracked head...must be a big crack by the amount of antifreeze coming out but I cant find one anywhere. Compression on the motor is 150 so that seems fine. Anyone want to buy a Mav cheap!!!! Any suggestions? JP
If i was there I could help you way better than offering advice. At this point I would pull the heads send them out and have them fluxed. Take pics of your head gaskets and post them. Both sides. Compression does not always get low on this type of problem. take the Rad cap off disable fuel and fire. Crank away. If you seee bubbles or coolant shooting out just another idea to confirm the obvious I guess. I feel your pain My mav has been giving me tuning issues out the azz lately hang there though.........
Ported through the water jackets?? I would love to buy the car but would rather see you fix and enjoy your ride!!! Richard
Water jacket.... I am afraid that I may have done just that. Left the water jacket to weak and it burst through. If this did happen, I wonder if it is fixable. Time to tear it down for the fourth time.....
YOU MIGHT TRY TO PUT SOME LEAK DYE IN THE COOLING SYSTEM AND THAT MIGHT SHOW YOU WHERE YOUR LEAK REALLY IS . IF THERE IS NOT WATER IN YOUR OIL I WOULD GEUSS THAT MAYBE IT IS NOT A CRACKED HEAD BETWEEN THE HEAD AND THE BLOCK BUT MAYBE SOMEWHERE IN THE EXHAUST PORTS OR SOMTHING BUT IT CANT BE THAT MAJOR. NOT ENOUGH TO GIVE UP ON , I UNDERSTAND YOUR PAIN , AS I HAVE COME ACROSS SOME ISSUES ON SIMILAR DEALS AND I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON FORDS SINCE I WAS 5 YEARS OLDBUT EVERY NOW AND THEN I HAVE TO GO THROUGH SOME ELIMINATIONS AS TO FIX THE PROBLEM . IT USAULLY TURNS UP TO BE MINOR. HOPE YOU GET IT GOING, AND REMEMBER THERE IS ALWAYS INFO HERE IF YOU NEED HELP. JEFF
I feel your pain ... not sure if replacing the heads is as bad as doing a cam but it's right up there ... and I've done the cam once and heads twice! Unfortunately it does sound like something is cracked or warped. Is the water only coming out of one side of the engine? I couldn't tell on mine because of the H-Pipe. Not sure how many hours you've been working on the car but when that bolt broke off and I had to take my head off AGAIN! ... I just let the car sit for a week or two until my patience returned .... good luck ... Also the one time I thought it was a head gasket on my car ... I'm pretty sure it was actually the intake gasket since every intake passage was green from anti-freeze ... even right below the carb opening ...
hey 19mav73...all caps and bold letters is usually interpreted as YELLING. but until i get my new glasses.... well... your response sure was easy to read! (no comment from you younger guys)
One of the most common reasons for coolant in the exhaust is head gaskets. I didn't recall if you had your heads trued up before you installed them. That is another reasonably common reason. The heads may look true, but you have to measure them to really find out. It doesn't take much warpage for the gaskets to seal poorly. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that you may even have a defective gasket set. Quality control is not always perfect, even with good companies like Fel-Pro, if that's the gaskets you bought. Best advice is to keep it simple to start (most obvious) and gradually go to the more complicated as you rule out problem areas. Step back from it for a day or two to clear the brain first. I've done this on many occassions for all kinds of problems and it usually works well. If you're frustration threshold is anything near as low as mine, this is good advice to follow.
Don't give up, Jim. If those are the 351W heads I sold you I know they didn't leak. I ran them for several years with no problems. The exhaust ports were opened up to the max allowable. A friend of mine had an old 351W head with a cracked valve seat that we cut open so we could see how far to open the exhaust ports. I don't know if you did any more work in that area. Take the heads to an auto machine shop. They can pressure test them. I think NAPA charged me about $20 apiece. If they find a crack and it's accessable it can be welded with nickle alloy rods. A crack may not be visible when the head is cool, but at high temps the head expands and the crack opens.
You using the correct head gaskets? The 351 Windsor heads have some differences regarding the water jackets...
MAN I GET THAT ALL THE TIME ABOUT CAPS AND BOLD BUT IM NOT YELLING . I JUST HAVE A PROBLEM WITH SEEING THE REAL SMALL LETTERS AND I FIGURED IF I TYPED EVERYTHING BIG AND BOLD IT IS EASIER ON MY EYES AND MAYBE EVERYONE ELSES AS WELL . I HOPE YALL UNDERSTAND AND DONT TAKE IT WRONG OR THINK THAT IM YELLING , THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW THOUGH . JEFF
Not sure if this helps, and hope I don't sound too dumb, but I read that if you don't put a good bit of sealant gooped up on the head bolts that coolant will leak around them. I tend to hit the ovious and simple before the difficult and expensive.
Thanks guys. I havent pulled the heads off yet but I have a feeling that it is a cracked head. I ported the heads more than they were when you sent them, Barry. I may have gotten to thin in a spot. We will see. Hopefully it is something else but I feel that I may have made a thins spot. I hope it can be fixed. I am going to try tearing it down tomorrow and do some more inspection. I am getting good at this!! I feel a little better about it today so I guess I will keep the car. Anyway, I will let you all know what I found out. BTW..19Mav73, I have my speakers turned off so you can yell all you want. Jim
When you get to the point where you're really good at tearing your engine down and putting it back together ... it makes you wish you bought stock in Fel-Pro!
I had a set of Windsor Jr. Iron heads that were TOO ported. They repaired the breakthrough with copper tubing. Dunno if this helps in your case or not. Gluck!
