head is leaking antifreeze

[charlie challenger]

I bought a 440 that was apart, and had a machine shop bore and surface the block, polish the crank, and surface the heads.  I haven't started the engine yet, we put it together about a year ago, and it just sat there.  I put antifreeze in it yesterday, and noticed some was leaking out from both sides.  On one side it looks like it's leaking from where the head meets the block, and from where the headders meet the heads.  On the other side it looks like it's only leaking from the headders.  I can't believe it's leaking with no pressure, without the waterpump going.  What's wrong?  cracked head or heads, a cracked block, I didn't put the gaskets on right, all of the above...  Is there a simple thing I may be over looking? 

[hemiken]

It is a common problem for a big block to leak from both ends of the head to exhaust studs on each end as the studs are tapped all the way in to the water jackets and are prone to leaking, if you have removed the studs and are just using bolts to hold the headers in this will leak even more so....... simple solution is to just remove the bolts (only the end bolts per head) and wipe them with salastic and re-fit them, this should stop the leaking problem.

[4drbrnko]

I had the same issue with my 1st '73 "cuda. ex. manifold bolt hole was tapped into the water jacket. That was a 340 motor though. 


edit: Hemiken beat me. Geez I type slow.

[charlie challenger]

is salastic a kind of coating that seals the threads of the bolts better?  Kind of like what that white teflon tape does?

[Bullitt-]

Silastic is RTV Silicone, High temp RTV is rated to 500F,Teflon tape has a high temp limit of 500F also..

[WVUFELLA]

No worries I had the same thing with my 440 it leaked around where the headers meet the ehad..... i  put the rtv substance on it  and once it got hot then the leaks went away ..... I freaked out to!!!!! dont feel bad

[BadJoey]

When I took my ex manifold studs out one broke . When drilling it out I nicked the water jacket . VERY SMALL leak but very annoying all the same . On the advise of 3 different "in the know guys" around here I put some ceramic coating in the cooling system besides the motor running cooler it seals small leaks . Problem solved . 

[72rtchallenger]

on the 340 and 440,the rear and front bolt holes on the heads are open to coolant flow,,you should reuse the studs that were in the heads from the factory,or new ones. if you put in bolts then seal the bolts threads,,they used studs from the factory so if exhaust was removed you would not lose your coolant