Possible head gaskets installed improperly?

[JS99Z]

So I hooked the garden hose directly to the t-stat housing, and removed the impeller, with the same results, hot heads and gurgling water. I’m and now convinced there is a blockage in the heads or something. Back to the builder who has been ignoring me for a month now. I think he knows he screwed something up. Gets my blood pressure boiling!

 

[Lou C]

It should not be hard for him to figure out...when I did my top end overhaul...I had never taken apart a real engine before (other than lawn mowers, weed wackers etc) and honestly...it was not a hard job....the hardest part was getting the intake off (those baked on gaskets were like Kryptonite) and cleaning up the block deck/cyl head bolt holes (use a thread chaser carb cleaner/brake cleaner and compressed air). Other than that, I got a nice set of reman marine V6 heads from a local speed shop here in Long Island (S/K Speed Shop in Lindenhurst LI) bolted them on with new Fel/Pro marine gaskets and adjusted the hydraulic tappets...and that was it! I also rebuild the Quadrajet and installed an updated exhaust system as part of the job...I'm guessing that whoever he got the reman heads from...if he didn't reman yours specifically...did not clean them out properly...and...there are holes in the block deck that must be open and correspond with holes in the heads..so cooling water can flow up from the block...into the heads to carry away the head of combustion....

 

[PITBoat]

So many problems on here after engine rebuilds. I've always feared them in land vehicles for this very reason. I did buy a '98 Firebird Formula one time that had a replaced LS1. That turned out to be an awesome car at a pretty cheap bang for the buck price, but I wouldn't have even gone to see it if I had known beforehand that it wasn't all original.

 

[JS99Z]

Update. Just pulled the intake off tonight with the engine builder. Low and behold the intake gaskets were on wrong. He was in shock. He’s going to make it right. And extend my warranty. To bad I lost out on the whole boating season. Do you think the gaskets being reversed caused any damage? Thanks everyone for all of the input and ideas throughout my issue!

 

[Lou C]

Take some pics and post em up. I have a hard time imagining how someone could mess up an easy job like that. The way they should go on is pretty much obvious. If the engine only ran at no load idle there is probably no damage, one big advantage of cast iron construction is the ability to not suffer damage with overheats. With severe overheats possible damage includes blown head gaskets and cyl head cracks. So now run it under load watch your temps and check for water in the oil and water in cyls. If you have running temps of 160-175 and no water in the oil or in a cyl then you’re good.

 

[Lou C]

Here's a pic of the cyl heads installed and a pic of the Fel Pro marine gaskets I used...the little 'ear' sticking out...has to go down I believe....If he had them installed the other way...it could have blocked the water port at both ends of the head...in my OMC parts catalog it plainly shows the gaskets with the 'ears' down...Also....you're supposed to put those restrictors in the center ports...that is the exhaust cross over that heats the manifold to prevent carb icing and allow the choke spring to get heated to open the choke..the restrictors are to prevent it from getting too hot...see them in the center of the pic between the gaskets....

 

[JS99Z]

These gaskets have the port blocked off for the rear of the heads and intake. He had the blocked off part of the gaskets on the front towards the water pump. So no water was going to the heads.

 

[JS99Z]

I’m trying to post pictures from my phone, but for some reason it is not working.

 

[Lou C]

These gaskets have the port blocked off for the rear of the heads and intake. He had the blocked off part of the gaskets on the front towards the water pump. So no water was going to the heads.

Ok now I get what happened. Interesting because I had both the Fel Pros and an extra set of Sierra gaskets and neither blocked off the area at the rear of the intake, they just seal it so water does not leak around the rear water ports on the cyl heads. The intake of course has no water port at the rear but the cyl head had water ports on both ends because they used the same casting fir both sides.

 

[JS99Z]

Here's the pics finally. They don't look like Felpro to me. The builder probably didn't buy the gasket set that is on my paperwork.

 

[Lou C]

Ahh now it all makes sense. Those are for sure not Fel Pro. I don’t see the exhaust cross over restrictors either,
Get him to put in a set of Fel Pros and see how it runs temp wise. I took a reading on the front of each head while it was idling in the water and they were both at about 135* when the temp gauge read 160.

 

[jerryjerry05]

Maybe someone asked?
Fresh water cooling system? or the sea water cool?
Maybe the wrong gasket between the riser and manifold?

 

[Lou C]

Nope its those intake gaskets above, they have to installed with the blocked off port at the rear, the guy who did the work installed them the wrong way so that the blocked off port was in the front, blocking the flow of water out of the heads!
Most of the intake gaskets I have seen for the 4.3s are like the ones I posted (Fel/Pro) they are open at both ends but still have to installed in the correct orientation (little ears facing down).

 

[Lou C]

PS any follow up on this? Got it back together? Even if you do it yourself it's not a hard job. The trick is to use a little gasket sealer on the ends of the gaskets to keep them in place and keep them from moving around when you set the intake in place. Then the next lil trick is getting the distributor clocked correctly.

I've been running mine a lot lately. With the new heads it runs better naturally and they brought back some of the HP lost due to wear as the engine got older. Also, the center riser exhaust set up breaths better than the more restrictive OE batwings since the elbow outlet is 4" instead of 3.5". With the new heads it runs cooler and the exhaust system also runs cooler, after coming off plane my batwings used to peak at about 135*, these just hit 110* under the same conditions, probably because the cooling passages are much larger. A good upgrade for these old pre-vortec OMCs.