Well just when you think somethings gonna last forever............

Plus T/F dragsters & Funny Cars often have severe tire shake...

 

And they DO go sideways quite frequently.

 

UPDATE: Yesterday I finished pulling the headers off and pressurized the coolant system to see if coolant would come out of any of the exhaust ports. None did. Hmmm? Next I hit the starter and "wala", coolant shot out of the #4 exhaust port. But apparently the rings are in excellent shape after nearly 11 years as there's no coolant in the oil. Well I pulled the intake off today and now I'm wondering again as to how (and where) the coolant got into #4 cylinder. Careful, these pictures ain't pretty .........................LOL this is what Felpros look like after about 8 years s

 

Thinkin on just replacing the intake gaskets and putting it back together and hope that was the problem. The coolant passages show no sign of corrosion, so I'm pretty sure my initial diagnosis was off. It's a wonder it didn't suck a gasket into the intake ports and cause a vacuum leak. That happened 8 years ago ( hence the 8 year reference in this 11 year old engine)

 

Yeah that's real ugly, I don't see any reason to go farther...

The gasket does appear "squished" more than I'd expect, any possibility the intake is a little warped or maybe just didn't set down straight???

 

I wouldn't take the chance, you should to do a leak down test on the cylinders to see if it's safe to run.

 

No, the intake's fine. I've seen other gaskets look like this after long periods of service. The oil, gasoline and vacuum works on em over time. And they lose their holding power too after being compressed awhile.

 

Safe to run ? It was running great as it was. That one cylinder that coolant came out of never leaked any coolant down into the oil pan. Only reason I had to suspect anything was amiss was coolant in the exhaust.

 

I had the same issue with those felpros 1262 or the like... there are some with a S in the part number that have a steel shim in the gasket... I think being a race gasket they weren't designed to be together that long..

 

Not that bad a deal there and looks like you dodged the bullet this time around. You can even see where the gasket was being stretched and sucked into the port.

Clean all your parts up good.. chase some threads out.. and use an oem stlye metal cored gasket like the Victor Reinz stuff. And be sure to put a transparently thin seal of rtv around all water ports and you'll be back to sliding sideways again in no time. Without a doubt.. those gaskets will last you till the rings need to be redone. lol

PS. I'd also dry mock all those parts into place without gaskets just to check all your angles and clearances. While we've all probably seen many gaskets squirm around over time.. sometimes the effect is accelerated when there's even slight mismatches as the manifold sinks down into the valley. The steel cores will eliminate this potential altogether. Easy to see and measure anyways.

If you decide not to go with the nicer Victor gaskets(sorry can't think of part#'s right now but I do know there are a couple differnt versions depending on your port size) and get sucked back towards those awful cookie cutter Felpro's?( I double dog dare you to buy 3 sets and find one that has all the same size port openings, lol).. you can also use Hylomar over the entire gasket too. Use a bondo spreader or any other stiff squeegee you can find to leave a transparent film over the entire gasket. This will make the cheaper composite gasket material last longer but I'll warn you now.. that stuff's a major pain in the rear to cleanup though. That stuff is tough as nails and withstands almost any chemical.. even acetone which is one of the strongest solvents.

 

Well y'all are a bit late...............I had a set of 1262R's sitting on the shelf that got the nod. LOL. Dug out a couple of cork ends and glued em with Gorilla glue (that shit don't come off your hands completely) Now it's sitting quietly in the shop with water in the radiator and the shop air connected to the heater port in the intake with a regulator inline at about 10-13 psi. (cap is rated at 13) Gonna hit the starter later tonite or in the morning and see if any water gets pushed out the spark plug hole. Crossin my fingers the gaskets were the problem. Had a little water(very little) in the engine oil when I drained it, damned if I know why it didn't mix and cause a milkshake. There's no sign of corrosion inside the coolant passages in the heads lookin through the ports.

 

Sounds like a pretty good plan.

As for the unmixed water?.. my quick guess is that while you were testing everything out.. the rings were cold and let a little dribble past all to end up in the pan. Seen it dozens of times.. better than being mixed and frothed up which can cause bearing damage.. no biggie.

The only thing that really gets me is that you didn;t have s light miss at idle once it was all warmed up.. or read anything about misfires on that leaking intake ports/cylinders sparkplug. I'm pretty confident that you found the issue here.. but just in case.. good luck with it all.

 

Actually it did have a slight miss when first fired up, but it was hard to tell whether it was just from being cold or something else. Once warmed up, there was no miss, but I could smell antifreeze in the fumes. The spark plug looked normal, I expected it to show signs of the coolant, but I guess the slight amount wasn't enough to exibit this. I went out an hour or so ago and cranked the starter, it still has a small amount of water vapor shooting out the plug hole. But I'm not sure if this is residual moisture or new stuff. I'll check it again in the morning. I cranked it long enough to get the moisture to stop shooting out, so hopefully that's all it was.

 

yep.. trapped water in the rings. Pretty damned sure it'll all work out for you.

 

Well no change this morning. Still got a few puffs of vapor when I cranked it. But it's nothing compared to what came out that first time cranking it with the headers off. THAT was a solid slug of coolant the first time the piston came up. Guess I'll take a chance and button it up with the newer headers on and run it and see what happens. And in doing this, I've got to re-do the header connections as the new set has a ball/socket hookup. More welding to do....................Agghhhh!!!!!