There are many places for air pockets to form.


Even after I bring it up to temp with the cap off and then putting the cap on and running it a few times, I usually find over the next few days the level will drop some as it purges some of these air pockets.

 

Well I messed with it yesterday a little bit more. I does not seem to have any air pockets. I drove it for an hour and didnt go into that much boost. Didnt blow any coolant. Then took it for another drive and had a couple WOT pulls and it blew coolant. I am assuming that it is a cracked head. Small crack that doesn't leak unless it has that extra boost pressure. Is a leak down tester the best way test this? The block tester I used came back fine.

 

If the block test didn't show it I would be curious if a leak down is effective enough to show it.

I would try Pressurizing the coolant system with a cooling system pressure test kit.

 

Thats what I was wondering. I would not be surprised if a head was cracked. The heads are off of the wrecked escalade with the front end damage. The alternator and power steering bracket was broke. I power braked and got a little bit of boost and tried the block tester and didnt have much luck either.

 

Pulling a head tonight!

 

adjusted it for you...

 

lol. Well **** me. I cant figure out what is going on. It makes a noise like gravel is hitting the inner fender on the driver side. Sort of like an exhaust leak. Only when I get into about 6lbs of boost. Ran great besides it was blowing coolant out of the overflow. I pulled the cap off and power braked it until it got into that much boost. It sends coolant about 10ft in the air. So compression must be getting into the coolant. There is no coolant in the oil. I thought it was a cracked head. They were off of the wrecked escalade. Everything looks good on the head and head gasket. But when I pulled them off the head bolts were not very tight. With a normal size 3/8 ratchet they came loose with minimal effort. I wonder if I torqued them wrong. Are the torque specs different with the 7 layer gaskets? Im confused. Why wouldnt there be water in the oil?

 

Sounds like the heads were torqued incorrectly. The large head bolts should take a good amount of force to break loose with a hand wrench. Mine are torqued to 80 lb/ft with ls9 gaskets, no issues to 20psi thus far.

The gravel noise could be a pipe hitting the frame

 

Were you sliding sideways down the dirt shoulder when watching your boost gauge?

 

Thats what I thought I was doing the first time!! The noise is absolutely compression getting into the coolant.