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

The 9333PT1's are also graphite composites. And these held up admirably for 11 years. If I'm not mistaken the HP graphite gaskets have a different fire ring material.

 

yuck.. stock styl rebuilders. lol I just quick looked at the spec's for that 9333PT1 and those are over 10 cc gaskets. To maximize your dollar I'd seriously go with the smallest gasket volume you can afford to run.. preferably not larger than a 4.060 bore size. Every little bit adds up and the prices don't need to double in the process of finding it.

While I'm not much for all the China knockoff parts and this particular companies lack of integrity.. the much cheaper prices than the big names sure do want to lure us in. IMO, as long as the holes are located correctly.. easy enough to check.. these are one hell of a deal for a stainless MLS gasket set. Probably run right in the 8 cc range as well. Better quench. Higher cylinder pressure.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PC-Small-Bl...Parts_Accessories&hash=item3f323160ea&vxp=mtr

 

If what you said was true about cylinder 3 and 4 then a leak down test would have shown this immediately. I would still do a leak test after you get it back together to see if any damage was done to the rings from running it with liquid in the cylinders, this will also give you an ideal of how much over all wear you have on the engine.

 

All that may be true but I still had a 10.4 to 1 comp ratio with the 9333PT1's. The heads were milled .060 long time ago for use on a 302 cid motor. The chambers are 57 cc's now. I surely do not need more compression. Between that and the wide LSA Z cam, it's got plenty. It will not run at all on anything less than 91-92 octane fuel. I had fired it up 11 years ago when I first got it together using the 87 that was in the tank. It sounded like it was crushing gravel in the cylinders the first block down the street. I mmediately turned around and syphoned 20 gallons out of the tank and it's been fed 91-93 octane ever since. (alternating between the two every other tank)

 

That would not have been the case until that last time I fired it off after the gasket fully let loose. No water ever got into the #3 cylinder. There's nothing at all wrong with the rings in this motor. Probably less than an once of coolant found it's way into the crankcase over a long period of time. I had been running the car several times before the leak got serious enough to do something about it. I left the motor buttoned up for more than 12 hours with the cooolant system pressurized to just under the cap's rating (13 lbs) and nothing more than a fine fog came out of the spark plug hole first time I cranked the starter the next morning. A presssure test at that point would have yeilded zero results. As I said before, what little leakage found at that point would have been attributed to the ring gaps. Once the gasket let loose when I fired it off after that, it was obvious what had happened, a pressure test then was moot, and wasted time.

 

"Several dollar sized puddles", "excess pressure in the radiator", "shooting coolant out of #4 exhaust" , "coolant in the exhaust", "Water in the engine oil" , "Smell antifreeze in the exhaust." , " Overheated dozens of times".

All the symptoms you mention above indicated a blown head gasket starting from your original post. Let me ask, have you ever done a leak down test?. A leak down test is not a pressure test at all because all engines leak. A leak down detects the amount of leakage. It's a great tool and can determine the condition of the rings, intake and exhaust valves as well as cylinder to cylinder. It has nothing to do with the coolant system. It would have saved you a lot of time. You can pick up a test kit for $40 at Harbor Fright and then all you need is a good supply of air from a compressor.

The reason I suggest you still perform a leak down test is because you continued to crank the engine with liquid in the bores and since liquid does not compress this can lead to severe damage such as bend rods, valves and damaged rings. Not saying you did this but you should check it.

Do what you want, it's your engine, but Forums are for sharing information and I want too clarify the need for this procedure should others encounter these symptoms. A $40 gauge and a compressor can tell you a heck of a lot about the condition of an engine. Be it a newly assembled engine or a 20 year old 100,000 mile engine. You can't just look at it when it's assembled and say it's okay, you need to test it.

 

I'm well aware of what can happen with water in the cylinders. You're preaching to the choir here, I'm not some noobie mechanic stumbling around in the dark here. There is NOTHING wrong with the bottomend. Bent rod ? You don't need a pressure test to diagnose that. I know how to spot that in an assembled short block without removing the oilpan. Can you ? You spouted off a half dozen quotes here, but failed to recognize that they were not all happening at once. And contrary to what you're saying, they're also not always indicative of a blown head gasket. There could well be other things that they could point to.

 

Wow! good luck to you hope things work out.

 

Well got the 331 back together last week. Then had to wait til this week to fire it up as the starter solenoid took a dump AGAIN !!!! while sitting in the shop. So far so good, have to wait til this freakin rain lets up here to drive it. Been rainin almost constantly for the past three weeks.