(M60 Folks) Leaking HG??

[yukon101]

I wish it were done... I got it all back together again yesterday, excited to have my car back again to find again today that it's still leaking in the same damn place. I don't have my high powered flash light to look at the valley pan again but when I looked at it yesterday after driving there was steam but no water to be seen.

[yukon101]

Well, sad day. I have a dead M60 now, I checked the oil again after trying to fix the coolant leak for the fourth time and the level went up significantly and there's clearly a mix on it. The bearings are still a-okay so I will be putting her into long-term storage while I move then bring her down with me and at least replace the head gaskets but ill likely do an entire engine build.

[marshallnoise]

I wouldn't be surprised if the heads got a little tweaked after that bounce off the red zone. Mine did that twice and I had to take 10 thousandths off them to get them flat again. Aluminum ain't cast iron.

[yukon101]

Possibly but it never ran hot and never had a problem with it before. Not burning coolant either, no pressure in the cooling system while cold. I now have an E46 DD too.

[marshallnoise]

For sure. I thought you said it did go to red though. I never really noticed a coolant level loss on my car, but the car would run normal, then all of a sudden start to skyrocket up. Bleeding it was a pain in the ass and eventually the car got bad enough that the coolant would never stabilize in the expansion tank. Oddly enough, it never turned the head gasket leak fluid the yellow that indicates an exhaust leak into the coolant chamber.

But as soon as I flattened the heads, installed new gaskets and topped it up, it became perfectly well behaved.

[yukon101]

Finally got around to the final analysis of the engine to finally close the case. Decided to take the valve cover off my old engine tonight and found the head gasket was in fact leaking, water is evident in the oil even up in the head. I inspected the tops of all the head bolts and found one of the heads of the head bolts snapped off causing a separation of the head and block under operating temps.

[moroza]

Fascinating. How many miles, and any indication that the head bolts were touched since it left the factory? Do you have a recall Alusil block?

[yukon101]

Fascinating. How many miles, and any indication that the head bolts were touched since it left the factory? Do you have a recall Alusil block?

That is the original 308k mile nikasil block. From what I can tell they look factory, no tool marks to be seen on them. This engine was very well cared for as evident by the lack of "staining" on the walls inside the head and what is present is easily wiped off with a paper towel.

Perhaps I'll upload pictures tomorrow when I get them off my phone.