Oil leak 1000 heads on 1200 block

[ekvh]

My baby breathed its first breath yesterday, but is in ICU today. I have a substantial, more than a Harley, leak coming from a crack right above the smallest bolt on the left head. I have cleaned and wiped it down many times and finally watched with no bolt in the hole, and it is clearly coming from a hairline crack starting at the milled portion of the head going up each side. It appears to be coming from right above the bolt. I remember someone else posting he same problem a while back. I think it was a new head for him.

At this point, I can't see why not try cleaning withe acetone, lots of air pressure, repeat, repeat, repeat, and then trying some good ole JB. I will let it sit for a while, and take all suggestions into consideration. I realize it should have a new head, but I am going to try something else first. Any favorite snake oils for this? This head was shaved 0.025 and although I have a spare set of heads, I hope to avoid the additional expense of having it planed.

As far as I can see there is no real oil pressure against this, just the pressure waves created in the crankcase. The oil just flows down from the rocker assemblies.

If that wasn't enough, my regulator must have crapped, 16.8v at idle, and I had a stuck float. This is so much fun.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, Eric.

 

[slabghost]

I used a product called PC7 to seal a block in an old pinto many years ago. It's an epoxy similar to jb and held for over three years. It still didn't leak when I sold the car and that was the water jacket. I did grind into the crack to form a groove and filled it with the epoxy.

 

[ekvh]

I could grind a little out, and I think I would put he bolt back in just for looks as it is going to pull it open as it tightens, or put the bolt in tight, squeeze the magic potion in, then back the bolt off. I can't see how this happened unless my heads were shaved too much on that end. I torqued all the head bolts and then torqued the little bolt.

 

[joedrum]

theres all kinds of ways to get this stoped ....so bolts is great some kind of moded patch good epoxy on bottom and squeezed down with spiral wedged screw to seal

 

[Ansimp]

What about having it tig welded?

 

[joedrum]

can that be done on the bike tony ...without hurting head gasket?

 

[slabghost]

There is a rod that "solders" aluminum within the heat range of a propane torch. Not sure if you can get enough heat there to get that stuff to flow though without causing further damage.

 

[ekvh]

I doubt you could ever get the piece clean enough for any type of weld without removing the head. With the head removed, it could probably be done. I just hit it with acetone and air 15 times. There is still oil seeping out. I think it will take a while. My thinking is that it isn't going to hurt to try this. Otherwise I'll get a new gasket and try again with my spare head, but I will probably have to get it planed down.

Does the head have dowels on the top and bottom, or just the top? I didn't use new dowels and if one was holding up on the bottom, it might have kept it out enough, throwing off the torque readings, to crack when tightening the bottom. I think it would have leaked elsewhere ... Coolant or combustion chamber also.

 

[ekvh]

Another question for the experts, when I hooked up my charging system, I used the reg/rect. From my Magna. It had a black wire, which I believe is the sense wire. I left that empty. Mistake? If so, where should it connect?

 

[joedrum]

this is the classic crack that happens ....that small bolt should be the first bolt to come off when removing heads I could see it cracking from just being the last bolt untighten ...it is diffinitly the weakest place on the head....

id say it should hook to the ignition hot ...I just went through this and I did it ...but my memory is suspect but im qite sure its ignition hot black wire

 

[ekvh]

I think you are right Joe. I read that on the v4 site. I probably fried the reg, but maybe it needs that sense to determine the amount of charge. I am going to hook it up, but I think I'll get the head issue first.

 

[backlander]

Here's what I use on aluminum Eric and it works great. Once it's applied properly and cures, youcan file, grind, sand,paint, you can even drill and tap it. I have used it aluminum boats and never had to repair a repair I've made with it. It's a ground up aluminum flake epoxy and I think the last quart I bought was about 35-40 dollars.https://bondo.com/bondo-metal-fill-452.html

 

[Steve83]

ekvh » Mon Jun 17, 2013 9:17 am[/url]":3dmlfhp9]I doubt you could ever get the piece clean enough for any type of weld without removing the head. With the head removed, it could probably be done. I just hit it with acetone and air 15 times. There is still oil seeping out. I think it will take a while. My thinking is that it isn't going to hurt to try this. Otherwise I'll get a new gasket and try again with my spare head, but I will probably have to get it planed down.

Does the head have dowels on the top and bottom, or just the top? I didn't use new dowels and if one was holding up on the bottom, it might have kept it out enough, throwing off the torque readings, to crack when tightening the bottom. I think it would have leaked elsewhere ... Coolant or combustion chamber also.

There are only 2 dowels, at the top corners of the head.

 

[AApple]

That looks to me like it has cracked all the way thru. If you take the head off, that piece may fall right off. That might explain why it still seeps oil every time you clean it, as there shouldn't really be any oil standing in that area, once the engine cools down. You could prolly slow the seepage down with JB/epoxy, but it looks like a clear thru break to me. :crying:
I'm surprised mine isn't cracked right there....I dint remove the bolt when I took the first head off of mine, and I did kinda pry on it trying to get it loose before I found that bolt.... oh2:

 

[ekvh]

The garage opened this morning with the sun at the perfect angle for me to see inside the oil galley return. Five minutes and it was gone. I could see a hairline crack on the inside. I used qtips and acetone and cleaned it well and smeared a light coat of JB on the inside too. Fired it up tonight, so far so good. About six starts, warm ups and cool downs. Fingers crossed for the summer. Also hooked up my sense wire and charging system is good to. I hooked up a Hercolor digital. Some of it works. More later.