Cometics are awesome.........or not

[turbobrain87]

Seems as though every time you not expecting anything, things happen for the better. But when your really exicted, sh*t goes wrong. I've had my motor out since Febuary and saved and saved, bought all the nice pieces and that's when everything started going wrong. Got the wrong main bearings and rod bearings shipped to me. Got the wrong valves shipped to me. Finally got the motor to the machine shop a couple months ago and got it back last Friday. Had a few minor things to fix gettin it in the car which wasn't anything unexpected but then when I tried to start it we got no spark. We chased a gremlin in the ignition wiring for almost 8 hours! Finally found it this morning and the car fired. We ran it with no water in it to seat the rings and such and everything looked good. Ok, now I'm really excited cause the sucker runs, and good too. But then we put coolant in it and let it run for about 5 to 10 minutes until the thermostat opened, checkin things out underneath and see two water spots on the ground, one on each side of the motor. Yeah, well those "bad ass" Cometics are leakin! I flew off the handle! I was at a loss for words. I've worked so hard and waited so long for this and the damn thing has leaking head gaskets. The gaskets are even sopposed to be the redesigned ones because the other design had leakage problems which I know some guys can atest to. I don't know. Hopefully I can get the heads off without pullin the motor again. I have the studs with the the hex head on 'em, anybody removed those before? Well, guess I'll go out here and turn the fuel pressure way down and crank the boost way up and see how far I can scatter parts! Or not. Sorry guys for the bitchin, but I just had to vent a bit.

 

[broke1]

Try GM sealant tabs or radiator stop leak.DONT PULL THE HEADS TILL YOUVE TRIED THIS!!!!HTH

 

[turbosam6]

Chill dude, most of them leak. Get some GM cooling system tabs, and it will stop. Mine leaked pretty bad, and 1 seal tab fixed it, so I put 2 in. Lots of guys have the same experiences. Now do you feel better?

 

[disco stu]

Torque? try 80-85 ft lbs and see if that helps.

 

[gnfanatic]

Mine never leaked. Obviously you got to make sure everrything is beyond cleand that the ehads and deck are perfectly flat. I used the copper spray on them as recommended by my engine builder (rpe). I love them, used arp bolts. Tprqued to 85 ft lbs.
good luck
Ralph

 

[steve hughes]

Did you look to see exactly where it's leaking from? Probably around one of the outer studs. Did you put teflon sealer on the studs when you installed them? If that's the case the seal tabs will fix it.

 

[Intercooler]

You can read about me doing it here with pics: http://www.t6p.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3513

 

[BEATAV8]

Hey dude same thing happened to me.... Just started the engine with fresh cometics and filled it with water. She was sitting there idling with the radiator CAP OFF and I watched the cometics drip drip drip ever so slowly.... I crawled under the car while it was running and confirmed it was coming from the head gaskets and not the studs.

I put in 1 bottle of alumaseal and the leak disapeared immediately.

Keep in mind these are multi layer steel shim head gaskets and will sometimes be finicky about sealing the coolant, but at least you won't have to worry about blowing the head gasket out and spewing graphite crap and a gallon or two of coolant into your crankcase, I just went through that before installing the cometics and it's a pain.

Also, FWIW, I have iron heads and I torqued the cometics to 70 ft*lb and will not be re-torqueing.

 

[buickboy]

Torqued mine to 85 with ARP bolts with no sealant. Keep in mind that Cometics have a couple of thousand layer of Viton bonded to the two outer leayers. Mine have never leaked.
Mitch

 

[Intercooler]

I got leaks with my 1007 Wire-Locs to the outside too until I put seal tabs in. When I put the Cometics in I will put seal tabs in to start with. Does wonders!

 

[Spongebob]

I have had excellent results with Moroso Ceramic Seal.

http://www.moroso.com/catalog/categorydisplay.asp?catcode=22005

 

[turbobrain87]

Good god, didn't think anyone would really giva a lick! Well the studs do have sealer on them and they were torqued to 70 ft lbs. They were leaking from both front bottom passages. I thought about the block sealer but you're not supposed to use that with antifreeze, are you? My deal is that if they're made to go on dry, then that's the way I'll do it, but I don't want em to leak. (laughing to myself) You guys probably think I'm crazy, but I went ahead and pulled the motor back out and put Felpros back in it. Dunno just like to have everything do it's job with no assistants. But on the bright side, I did drive the car today, all is well so far and man, it really feels good! thanks for the advice guys, I do appreciate it! Brian

 

[Spongebob]

FYI - Moroso block seal cannot be used with anti freeze during the install, afterwards it's fine.

Instructions are:

Remove Thermostat, bypass heater core.

Flush cooling system

Refill with water only

Add ceramic seal

Take motor to operating temp for 30 minutes

Drain cooling system

Leave cooling system dry and open to air for 24 hours

Install themostat, reconnect heat core, refill with anitfreeze

I know a few circle track guys who have used it to seal a blown head gasket just to make it to the end of the season. It is good stuff if you follow the directions.