Re: 350 Mag Head Removal
tony, the pics are of an engine that definately had an overheat and head gasket go. I have been following that other post too. He clearly has the block and head damage.<br /><br />The answer is that the damage in 3 can definately relate to the condition in 5, the key is to figure out how. I once blew a piston head to bits in a 327 SBC #6 and found a piece of the piston in #4 which hammered the end of the plug completely off. Only way I can figure it got there was by way of the intake manifold so strange things can happen. The reason I asked ablout the closed cooling is that if you had a coolant leak from a head gasket or cracked block or head, the coolant level should have been dropping periodically while you were running. I suspect it must be a fairly small leak so I wouldnt expect your anti freeze to have dissappeared in a hour or two of running but if you had to top it off a couple of times then you can pretty much count on the leak being one of the eares that Don suggested. It sure looks like you were eating water or antifreeze for things to be that clean in #5.<br /><br />On the issue of getting water into the combustion chamber from the exhaust manifold, I'll have to defer to the experts. I can see how it could happen to cause hydrolock (water leaks into the exhaust chamber when the engine is off and gets into the chamber through an open valve) but I just cant see that condition causing the engine to eat the water turning it to steam and creating what you see in the pics.
tony, the pics are of an engine that definately had an overheat and head gasket go. I have been following that other post too. He clearly has the block and head damage.<br /><br />The answer is that the damage in 3 can definately relate to the condition in 5, the key is to figure out how. I once blew a piston head to bits in a 327 SBC #6 and found a piece of the piston in #4 which hammered the end of the plug completely off. Only way I can figure it got there was by way of the intake manifold so strange things can happen. The reason I asked ablout the closed cooling is that if you had a coolant leak from a head gasket or cracked block or head, the coolant level should have been dropping periodically while you were running. I suspect it must be a fairly small leak so I wouldnt expect your anti freeze to have dissappeared in a hour or two of running but if you had to top it off a couple of times then you can pretty much count on the leak being one of the eares that Don suggested. It sure looks like you were eating water or antifreeze for things to be that clean in #5.<br /><br />On the issue of getting water into the combustion chamber from the exhaust manifold, I'll have to defer to the experts. I can see how it could happen to cause hydrolock (water leaks into the exhaust chamber when the engine is off and gets into the chamber through an open valve) but I just cant see that condition causing the engine to eat the water turning it to steam and creating what you see in the pics.
<br /><br />Is is possible that it just wasn't torqued properly causing a water leak on #5 and a loss of compression on #3?<br /><br />I am still going to have the heads checked when I pull the other side......<br /><br />I will also have a closer look at the block.<br /><br />Any other suggestions?