Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Wayne, post: 825252, member: 863"] I was just directed to this thread, and feel inclined to offer a little insight as I put it together. This whole deal building the truck was a pretty costly learning experience for Elite at the time starting with a miscommunication of sorts with our machinist, and the valve seat cutting process. This is the only set of Elite heads I'm aware of this ever happening to. The potential future problem has since been 100% resolved with a new design & process for seat install (improved design for everyone purchasing since that time) The machinist swore he cut them the same depth as he always did, but ended up barely, or almost cutting into the water jackets, which we didn't figure out until test driving when the motor would puff a little coolant smoke on start-up, then run clean, and be great aside from about 1-2 qt loss of coolant every 150 miles or so. Maybe it was a casting flaw, maybe not, but those heads were scrapped. We didn't figure it out until I pulled the turbos to find moisture in the up pipes. I then pulled the exhaust manifolds, and with the system pressurized, saw coolant coming out of an exhaust port. After the heads were off, we found the leak right at 1 seat on one head, and at 2 on the other. New heads were put on, and shortly after, it started mixing coolant in the oil. This is when I discovered coolant coming up past the head stud threads. We Teflon coated the leaky ones at the bases, and drove it a little more. If was only using a tiny bit of coolant, (no more from the stud tops) but using it none the less. Time for a new block. We built an entirely new engine, being extra careful on everything to make it perfect. Here's where the details get a bit fuzzy... iirc, we went back to the old torque spec of 195 lb/ft on the head studs to minimize the possibility of cracks. We tested the truck thoroughly for a couple hundred miles more to be 100% certain that everything was as it should be, and it was. If I were to guess the problem, I'd say the 195 I think I did just wasn't quite enough to keep the heads seated fully. You might try to go in and re-torque them up a little more (my own opinion, not authorized by Elite) , say 210ish, and run it for a bit to see what happens. Once you lift a head, unfortunately, it's compromised, and the gasket needs to be replaced, but a re-torque could maybe help define your problem, and slow down pressurizing, which I suspect to be head gaskets, especially since the system only pressurizes under "high" boost. [/QUOTE]