coolant leak!

[helzbelz888]

ok, so i spent all day yesterday helping my buddy get his new motor in his truck. it is a 1979 chevrolet c/10 pickup with a sbc 305... i thought we did everything perfect. we got the old motor out, new motor in, got everything buttoned up at around 1am... it fired right up the timing was perfect and everything was going good when i noticed a coolant leak which was coming out from between the intake manifold and valve covers above the #2 cylinder.. we tried re-tightened the intake manifold but when we fired it up again it leaked less but still leaked.... we were so tired we both figured we were useless but we want to get it down the road today..
anyone know whats going on? did i make a newbie mistake???

[megaladon6]

what kind of gaskets? what torque/pattern? were the heads decked?

[helzbelz888]

i dont know if the heads were decked.. it was just a stock rebuilt longblock from a machine shop. we used the gaskets from a Mr gasket engine overhaul gasket set. the torque pattern was circular from the center out.

[helzbelz888]

well it appears that the problem sort of healed itself... my guess is the gasket swelled up and made a seal.. i'm going to change the oil and make sure theres no coolant in it, and run it for a while and check the oil again.. i guess thats all i can do.. thanks for the help though.

[67Camaro RS/SS 350]

I know this may be a stupid question, but did you use RTV on the 4 inner bolts on each side? I use RTV on all 12 intake bolts just to be safe. These bolts protrude into the coolant passages and without RTV, they will leak just as your did. Without the RTV, the issue will not rectify itself. It will continue to leak.

[rixtrix1]

I'd recommend some type of teflon thread sealing compound, instead of RTV, as it's designed just for that purpose.

[67Camaro RS/SS 350]

My GM service manual says to use RTV. I have tried teflon sealer, like the ARP thread sealer and I still had a leak issue. As soon as I went back to the RTV, the leak stopped. Just a thought. I am not saying teflon thread sealer won't work for your application. All I'm saying is that I still had a leak after using it.