ddd4114

Does it only leak when you beat on it? Does it still leak when you drive it very conservatively? How about if it idles for 20 minutes in your driveway?

Did you try retorquing the head studs (not that it matters too much with ARP's)?

Omniscient

My driveway is on an incline so if I park with the front of the nose facing down on the slope and leave it sitting overnight it will be wet in the morning. When I drive the car regardless of how hard the heat of the block will dry the spot and it will only appear wet, you don't get any coolant on your finger if you wipe the spot. It doesn't leak enough to leave any spots on the ground.

I haven't retorqued the headstuds. I just tripple checked the torque before I put the cams and caps and everything back on. I'm pretty sure it isn't headlift because my temps are always fine and consistant and I'm not getting and boil-over in the reservoir.

Running925

Theres no way you head is lifting on that motor. Your not running instane amounts of boost, you've got ARP studs in it, they are torqued to the correct amount. You have a fresh gasket in there, the only way it would leak at this point is if for some reason, you didn't have the machine shop check to see if you block & head were straight so that when you mated them together that they would be sitting perfectly flat when you torqued the studs down.

ddd4114

I'm thinking either that, or you screwed up with the head gasket (debris on the mating surface(s), didn't properly torque down head studs, too much copper spray, etc.). However, I get the impression you know what you're doing, so I'm thinking for one odd reason or another, the seal just didn't form well. It's not affecting your car's performance, so I wouldn't worry about it unless it gets worse or until you have the time to replace the head gasket.

Good luck.

Omniscient

I didn't bother with that because the motor has about 45k miles on it. The stock motor would have ran forever if I didn't blow that ring land out. When I first cracked it open everyone was so suprised how fresh the motor was. I've never let it overheat to the point that the needles pegging the H and the old gasket looked brand new and never leaked.

Why did it happen to Eric?

I'm guessing it might be a small defect in the headgasket or something. I'm stumped. I'm just going to check it every day until it goes away in storage for the winter which is like less than a month.

Civic2Scooby

I dont care if that motor only had 4k miles on it, Always get your head and deck checked for warp. Heads can warp just by the way you take them off the block when undoing head bolts. It isnt just a mileage thing. I figure you put too much time into rebuilding it, NOT to have the head and deck checked just seems foolish to me. /rant

hope the headgasket lasts long enough until you can afford some down time. I know it sucks when you have to fix unexpected shit when you dont have the time to do it lol.

Omniscient

Ok... I originally had concentrate mixed with water in my radiator system. I flushed it out and put some 50/50 in there and it stopped leaking??

Running925

now that sounds really weird

Omniscient

I dunno. Maybe it's completely irrelevant.

Civic2Scooby

haha...for a second I thought it said you originally had concrete mixed with water in your radiator system h: