Amazon: Post-Rebuild B20 - Coolant Leak

[gothamus]

Last night was the first startup of my re-built B20f into B20b (dual SU HS6 carbs with Mech fuel pump and 123Ignition w/Petronix coil).
I've only run her in for 10 minutes. I shut her down for the temperature getting past High and it needed some idle correction I wasn't able to reach easily (I went to reduce the idle screw and then fast idle was screwed in too far on the rear carb).

The news here- no big leaks...outside. Bad stuff. I have coolant leaking into the oil. I used blue coolant intentionally to be able to see it well if there is a leak.

2 leaks- a small trickle of a few drops out the rear of where the head mates to block/head gasket. You can't wait for it but I can see some drops outside and I saw a tiny squirt while I was hunting things during cool down.

Big problem- there is coolant condensation inside the valve cover. See pictures attached. I don't see any noticeable sign that the sump is filled with all of the coolant, i.e. the oil isn't blue and the oil level is not showing above expected. But coolant is going in there at more than a drop or 2.

When I shut off there was some bubbling (maybe) weird sound and then I saw the coolant in the overflow drawn right out in full. I expect that to be from the engine coolant system filling out as thermostat opens and system opens and engine side draws in. Once that happened the odd sound was gone immediately. (I had filled engine with coolant with thermostat off first and then radiator and overflow).

The gasket was installed right side up. When I put the head on I was concerned that it might be mis-placed somehow. But with the head bolts and some other considerations at that time, I find it unlikely that it was mis-placed. But that is my first concern now.

My other concern is that I was sold a bad engine block or head. There was a bad end to my business dealings with this Swedish car enthusiast and I was taken for money and services not rendered. I am 90% sure the new rings and bearings were installed. I pulled the head off because sealant had been used on the head gasket (maybe there was a reason after all) and to see the condition and verify work. I had to clean the head. I didn't;t take it to a machinist but cleaned carbon deposits and swapped the rocker with the one from my old engine which I had already cleaned and refreshed.

I replaced the oil pump with that uprated IPD oil pump.
The B20 head gasket was a good one I bought from them a few years ago.
I have tightened down the head many times since assembly. Removing rocker, loosening a small bit before re-tightening. I used to different style torque wrenches so I would have some level of check against defective or mis-configured settings on one or the other. I followed procedure of tightening order.

One thing that may blow up some opinion/mistake or nothing- due to some issues with heater core and piping directions becoming a big side-tracking of the entire project- I got the idea from an old post of bypassing the heater matrix and thermostat for now and revisiting when I do the breaking-in flush. The coolant pipes in the rear are connected by a hose from the outlet pipe to the inlet pipe, in place of hoses going to matrix-thermostat. I am happy to explain more detail here if there are any questions. If I missed out on a major impact here, let me know. This project needed to get completed and I was/am into sudden death overtime.

Since coolant does not make a good lubricant, I guess the engine won't be running again this weekend. Tonight I'm going to have to find a spot to push my car to. I've been hogging this awesome parking spot with a Citibike stand behind me and fire hydrant 14 feet in front of me. Best spot on the block. After many months a certain person has brought down the law and I am on the run! Hopefully just across the street!

I will post some pictures of parts before assembly. Right-now I want to leave this lab I'm working at in NJ and get back to the safety of NYC.

[blueosprey90]

Well again, sadly, this is from the peanut gallery. My 2 cents is head gasket or warped or cracked head.

[mocambique-amazone]

Is the oil - water heat exchanger ( oil cooler) still in place? Looks like a land mine?

Remove it fast, faster.

Can't believe this bad luck.

Good luck, Kay

[gothamus]

No oil cooler. Head Gasket would be the fortunate problem of the possibles. I don’t have anything else before bad head or other. I will order a new gasket. Wish I could drive and pick one up. It’ll be 3 to 5 days before I have one. I should get some other options in place.

PS I’m thinking I should move directly toward tracking down a machinist and taking that head and my old head to him and have them tested. My old one has what I think is a small crack in the middle, though that was not what resulted in failure. If I end up with a good head I can use the new gasket with that. I sent Joe Curto a message. He might know someone in White Plains.

Crazy idea- I do have my old head that was from a B20f itself. Maybe for the immediate short term I try it out? That’s crazy though. I would definitely need a new gasket for that. Still...

[MatteoB]

Have the head checked. HG are installed dry, without any paste or sealant. I think you are dealing with a warped head or a similar issue.

[gothamus]

Thought I would throw out an update. Took me some moping around, pushing the car and making friends with some policeman while I got a path forward worked out.
I found a machinist that comes recommended by a few reliable sources. About an hour away in Long Island. Jesse's Machine Shop in New Islip.
A fellow I've known around the area that has a motorcycle and motoring shop came over last week to take a second look at what I have going on. He expected to see in my pictures and what was under the valve cover to be frothy. Being just blue liquid had him ask if there was anyway someone could access the engine to contaminate the engine. (No). After he looked around and we cleaned up any blue we could find, I ran the engine for a few minutes. Good and steady sound, clean exhaust.
Turned it off and looked under the cover and there was the frothy coolant he was speaking of. And nothing to see that explains it from this inspection.
On his recommendation I drained all the fluids out. Filled the engine with ATF (not in the radiator! ) and ran it for a minute. Drain and repeat. I changed the oil filter both times as well. When I dumped my catch pan into a bucket I found at least a quart of blue. Maybe my eyes are large, but it was a lot. The filter was almost a cup of blue in central reservoir.
I called the machinist and I'm taking my new head and my head from the old engine out there tomorrow. We''ll see.
I need to make another shopping list too. New head gasket. Mmmm, gotta sit down tonight and make sure I have considered everything I need to replace.

[Derek UK]

I have to say that I have never seen posts or pictures that show neat coolant inside the engine as shown in your photo. Normally it becomes mixed with the oil making a milky/creamy mess. Quite how that's not mixing with the oil I don't know but I await the next chapter of the story.

[gothamus]

The source of the oil is the valve cover. The engine is slanted slightly upward toward the front. The very rear right side of the valve cover gasket area has some pooling. I thought I had it tightened down sufficiently. But I will give another turn.

[Derek UK]

The valve cover retaining screws only need a light hand tightening to make a good seal. Factors otherwise are a bad gasket or more usually the sides have been distorted by overtightening. Get the cover on the bench and check the screw hole areas with a straight edge. More than likely they will be belled out. Carefully flatten with a small pin hammer and a piece of steel rod as an anvil. The whole length of the cover should be flat but the screw areas are the usual problem. Have a look in your local parts shop for Chev V8 rocker cover spreader plates for these screws. V8 will mean you get 2 sets. They are a wide triangular shape but look for slim ones that tuck in behind the raised lip on the edge of the Volvo cover. Fit new gasket dry or with a bit of grease applied with a finger. No sealer/Right Stuff needed.

[gothamus]

I’ve got one of those aluminum valve covers. With this rebuild I bought some of those fancy chrome hex screw-one, don’t know what they are called. But they aren’t any good. They have this 2 sided screw. One side into head and then you screw this chrome cap on. Neither side of that screw secures into head. It was a bit small and kept coming out part or all the way. I now have 5/16 hex bolts. I’m have assumed the aluminum cover shouldn’t be prone to bending as the original. I will follow your advice to check its flatness.

I don’t recall what gasket I bought some time ago for the valve cover, but it might be the problem. It’s green and seems like a fiber material. I’ve had it for a year or 2 and haven’t found my receipt. I saw some of the pooled oil at the rear was kind of green! That’s disturbing. I’m probably going to buy a replacement this week. Cork. What’s wrong with cork? I’ll get one of those.

First half of today I continued to have problems starting the car. Mis-firing, kind of a pop. Strong sense that it may be carbs, because it’s rhythm and sound didn’t seem like anything but fuel. If the petrol is good then mix may be weak or fuel level. I did a tear down of carbs in situ. It was dirty, you would think a few years running. But I was setting everything from scratch to eliminate the issue or see if the symptom changed. Just as I was giving a final wipe to second piston I noticed the needle had slipped out about an 1/8”. Screw was a bit loose. I corrected that. Verified the other was good. Completed that job and she cracked right up. Running excellent I put a good mile in, varying throttle and power. Temp is high but not to the top this time. I’ll be running some more mauled tonight. Flush radiator at some point. Promising. I’ll check that piston later to be sure there isn’t a repeating problem.