Syscrush said:There was no sign of coolant in your oil, right?
Inconclusive. I was using the waterless stuff which it turns out is nearly impossible to see in oil (I mixed some on purpose to see what I was looking for) and if it was there, well, I know I had coolant in the cylinders so I'd expect it to make its way to the oil from there.
I may fill it with coolant and see what that does....
Decided to fill it with coolant and retest. Its been at 15 psi for 45 minutes with no change....not sure how long I'll leave it.
3 hours....I guess I'll leave it overnight and if its still good call it ready to assemble.
the big question is : do you add a can of kseal as an insurance policy ?
In reply to dave215 :
The k-seal didn't actually fix anything but the can of the head gasket sealer version can had some huge fiber stuff that nearly sealed the little flow holes in the heads
I don't want to dump $250 worth of coolant so I poured it all through a paint strainer which got the fibers junk out but left all the copper powder....but thinking, that seems sub optimal for an aluminum engine and radiator so today I poured it through a towel and it looks pretty clean now, at least compared to before.
The stuff in the block right now only went through the paint strainer but I'll towel it tomorrow when I drain it out. But there will still be some in the system I'm sure so that will be the insurance policy I guess.
Might be good that it leaked .That head gasket sealer could cause real issues .
dave215 said:Might be good that it leaked .That head gasket sealer could cause real issues .
Yes, lesson learned on that E36 M3.
Its 18 hours now and no change on the pressure gauge which seems a very good result. ... so this evening reassembly will begin. I still need to fix the motor mounts and the shifter shaft leak before it goes back in but its cold outside and will be for a few more weeks so I'm not in a huge hurry to be out in the driveway tuning so a few more weeks work is fine I guess.
Funny how my 2-3 week project is what, 3 weeks in? ....and still 3+ weeks from finished. 
You have to feel good about that pressure test result. Here's hoping the results hold in real use!
dave215 said:Might be good that it leaked .That head gasket sealer could cause real issues .
Yes. Yes it does.
I thought I would mostly put the engine back together this weekend but saw this Friday
and I'd lost about 1/4 psi from here
to here
The coolant temp sensor I had kind of cobbled sealant into it to get it sitting where I wanted and just forgot to to fix while the heads were off so this isn't a huge surprise and of little concern. This could easily be the 1/4 psi because I'm pretty sure there was next to no air in the system when I capped it so even a small leak should make a pressure drop....but....I decided to fork out $26 for a 5.6mm wifi camera to have a look in the cylinders and it finally arrived this evening.
No coolant. I will also need to pull the sump cover to replace leaking shifter shaft seals so I'll take a look in there too, just to be sure.
Now, there is another issue I was pretty sure would happen.....aviation sealant . Kind of weird pic as its shot with a the mirror attached and the wide angle lens is also looking around the mirror...but the important part is the sealant
Its pretty much every bore...need to ponder this a little bit.
initial reaction - should not have bought the camera .
The sealant should get burned off? It's not rated for straight fire, isn't it only good to 400 degrees?
mke said:
Its pretty much every bore...need to ponder this a little bit.
Can you explain this picture? What exactly are we looking at here? I can't make it out. I understand that the focus is the dark liquid, which is the sealant.
GasTungstenArc said:Can you explain this picture? What exactly are we looking at here? I can't make it out. I understand that the focus is the dark liquid, which is the sealant.
Its sealant leaking from the head gasket, running down the cylinder wall and collecting on the piston
The concern is it damaging the rings or flaking off and getting stuck behind the rings which could then damage the cylinder wall before the combustion heat burns it out. I'm leaning to pouring lacquer thinner in it and rolling the crank back and forth slowly to wash it off as its a non-hardening solvent based sealer
In reply to mke :
I like that idea. Assuming no pan at the time so that it does not end up on bearings?
NOHOME said:In reply to mke :
I like that idea. Assuming no pan at the time so that it does not end up on bearings?
There is no oil in it and I will be removing the sump to confirm no coolant down there, but there is a windage tray that is part of the transaxle case so I won't be able to inspect the crank unless I separate the engine from the trans, and I'm not planning to do that.
The concern I have is the piston coating, I emailed this morning asking if the stuff is lacquer thinner or similar solvent safe.
In reply to mke :
is the sealant gasoline-soluble? because i gotta believe the piston coating would be impervious to gasoline.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to mke :
is the sealant gasoline-soluble? because i gotta believe the piston coating would be impervious to gasoline.
Related: how about using gasoline to dissolve the sealant?
Isopropyl alcohol will also dissolve it according to permatex .
dave215 said:Isopropyl alcohol will also dissolve it according to permatex .
Probably the safer choice
It is "resistant" to gasoline and oil so they are out. I always clean up the outside or clean it off for reassembly with laquor thinner or carb cleaner so that is where my head went, but looking it does say thin it with IPA so... that seems safer
In reply to mke :
cleans up with IPA? well then...
hop to it!
[/dad joke]
all better I think
I tried (denatured) ethyl alcohol because I had a gallon and dissolved the stuff just fine in a bench test so I poured some in each hole, rolled the crank, sucked it out and it was clearly dissolving something
I did it 3 times, then blew it out and put in some wd-40 to coat everything and it looks fine now. I can't really clean above where the rings sweep but I don't think I care about that so I'm calling it good.
You may have washed away the coating of graphite looking dry lube that comes with the gapless rings. But, the rings will probably break in anyway without the fancy stuff.
BL said:You may have washed away the coating of graphite looking dry lube that comes with the gapless rings. But, the rings will probably break in anyway without the fancy stuff.
Now i feel cheated, I had to buy that stuff separate 
I'm not sure what that stuff is, I got some on the block and it discolored the metal, had to sand it off. I think too I have at least an hour on the engine at this point so probably ok....probably...
No , you are not cheated. I had to buy mine separately too. By "comes with", I actually meant is "sold by and is recommended to use by the gapless ring company".
I forgot that you already had an hour or so of running the engine. So, yes, that stuff has probably done its job by now, or at least most of its job. Your break in oil should take over the rest of the job.
im certainly looking forward to seeing how this progresses, you are SO, SO, close now...
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