Head Gaskets Were Definately Blown

SCrazy

SCCoA Member
My last time at the track in the fall I got back to the pits after a pass and found the coolant overflow tank overflowing. No water in oil or oil in the water but I still figured that I had lifted a head and blown a head gasket.

Finally got around to changing them this weekend and both gaskets had failed. The were both bad on the middle cylinder with the blowout happening towards the exhaust port. Neither gasket was damaged nor was there any other damage but they were defiantely blown. (See Pictures)

Pistons looked perfect so I don't think there was any bad detonation damage to them but there was a gritty deposit on some of the intake valves making me think I should find some pitting somewhere on the pistons but I could not.
 

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Glad you found the problem, looks like you are lifting heads. Not really blowing headgaskets perse. That night it was super cold, I wonder if the tune was too agressive.
 
With the added boost you may get from improving the inlet restrictions, race gas would probably be a good idea for extra insurance.
 
I can't say I've ever had any issues before....maybe it's time to go that direction. IDK


I would agree with this. I dont see your car being a street car anymore in the street car sense. I think you crossed over to the race car field. So time to play like the big boys and use race fuel. You have a trailer and stuff. You can probably drop the Alky injection which brings another margin on error into a set up that is pushing limits.
 
I couldn't tell from the pictures, but was the rivet on the gasket removed. Because the is one rivet that will get pinched between head and block if it is not removed. But yes I would ditch the alky injection and run ms109 or better. But I really liked the ms109 when i ran it, actually my 10.17 run was on that.
 
Fvck me....see the scratch on the right side in picture #4. How the hell did I do that!? Off to the machine shop.:mad:
 
I couldn't tell from the pictures, but was the rivet on the gasket removed. Because the is one rivet that will get pinched between head and block if it is not removed. But yes I would ditch the alky injection and run ms109 or better. But I really liked the ms109 when i ran it, actually my 10.17 run was on that.

Is the ms109 leaded? If so how does that affect the O2 sensors?
 
For as hard core of et guys you blower guys are, who cares what it does to o2's, you dont even need closed loop. One wideband is all ya need.
 
As you can see MLS gaskets don't necessarily blow. Whenever detonation occurs, the head lifts then the compression pushes the flame to the surface of the gasket; therefore, torching its surface.

I never removed any of the rivets on the MLS gaskets. It's a negligible encroachment especially considering that's a brass rivet. That scratch only looks like a little one. I wouldn't worry about that. You probably just grazed a head stud whenever pulling the head off. Like Kevin said, it's smart to have them surfaced just to check for warping.
 
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