Two questions before you panic. 1). Have you re-torqued ALL of
the head bolts since its replacement. (Gasket leaking). and 2). Was
the head milled at the machine shop when it was there. Head warpage is
VERY common with Aluminum heads, and will cause leaks in the head
gasket....Especially if the head has not been retorqued since assembly.
Cracks between the water jacket and the oil galleys are fairly rare, but
can happen. The chances are Much better that the head Gasket is leaking
due to one or both of the above reasons
As for Damage, just changing the oil and filter and running it
to get the water back into vapor and out of the engine should work
fine....once the leak is stopped. My old alpine ran for almost two
years with a warped head that was leaking water into the oil. The
frothy mess kept plugging up the fire arrester on the filler tube on the
valve cover. It was always worse in the summer. When I rebuilt the
head I also had it milled. It was amazing how warped it was. When we
set it on the milling machines table the head rocked back and forth. I
could slide a quarter (25 cent) under the center of the head ! No
wonder the gasket leaked. The gasket was damaged enough so that
retorquing didn't help. Didn't leak a drop when I was done. Until the
Piston melted and wiped out the head....but you've all heard this
story...
Rich
> ----------
> From: Sergio Dimarmo[SMTP:Wanderer(at)sure.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 1997 9:26 PM
> To: alpines(at)autox.team.net
> Subject: Uh Oh...wata inda oil pan
>
> I recently had a spare cylinder head redone (not to mention new water
> pump, re-cored radiator & new water hoses) to try and eliminate an
> over
> heating problem my LBC has. Just found out during my move to Laguna
> Hills (about a 40 mile trip) that there is wata inda oil pan (I hate
> it
> when this happens). Looks like the DMSG (dumb machine shop guy) did
> not
> check for cracks in the head like he told me he would.
>
> I think I'll just have the original head re-done and replace the bad
> one.
> My question is can I safely drain the oil/wata "mixture" from my car
> and
> replace the head or should I dis-assemble the engine completely to
> remove
> any excess water? I wasn't planning to rebuild the bottom half just
> yet.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> "AJNT 86" 1967 Series V
>
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