Head Lifting Symptoms?

[Tyler_240]

I've posted several times, been working this project from a previous-previous-owner who knew nothing about the motor, etc...flying blind here.

Is 15psi enough to lift the head on an SR with a MHG, or am I barking up the wrong tree? There is no smoke, it idles smoothly, and no coolant in my oil. About 1500 miles on the setup.

I'm unsure what headgasket is on the car, but the reason I ask, is because I'm having some seepage near the front cover.

it looks like its coming from the HG area, and its just a little bit of residue. I recently bled my lifters and converted to dual guides, everything went smoothly and I noticed there was ARP hardware.

I called ARP about re-torquing specs and they gave me 90ft lbs for the 11mm size or 100ft lbs for the 12mm.

I'm a bit concerned about breaking something, but I feel like I need to confirm they were torque'd properly considering the previous owner seems to have been an idiot after all of the other issues i've resolved.

I was going to back one at a time off about 1/4 turn, then re-torque and work my way like the FSM.

What do you guys think?

[speedfiend]

I ran 15psi on my s14 sr with arp hardware and tomei HG for years DDing and never had a problem at all.

I would lean more towards the front cover not being installed on the block when it was decked before being rebuilt. A lot of times when a different front cover is installed, the top of the cover does not match the deck of the block exactly. If there is a low spot then it is not crushing the headgasket properly in that area and is causing your seepage issue. I have heard of people running a small bead of rtv just around the top of the front cover to prevent this issue.

Hope this helps.
Cameron

[RalliartRsX]

15 psi on what turbo?

I agree with the above. Sounds like an assembly/machining issue

[KAT-PWR]

Agreed. Sounds like the HG was installed poorly and is not sealing correctly. Odds of it being head lift I'm thinking is <.01%

[cotbu]

When you lift the head and I guess this isn't always true for every situation, you get oil and coolant blowing out. And its a clear pattern worse than trying to start an sr engine with the valve cover off.

Seeping oil isn't the same, that's usually a faulty install, by noobs that don't pay attention to multiple threads that answer the question about the front cover, it should be machined with the block, and use rtv on the head gasket timing chain area. A bazilvian times over.

[Tyler_240]

Understood. I appreciate the advice guys, that's what I needed to hear.