Its cut up and shredded. Anyone seen anything like this?

 

Jags, I really dont think you can tell whats going on without removing the heads.

 

Leak it down before you take anything apart...

 

What will that show?

 

http://www.geocities.com/dsmgrrrl/FAQs/leakdown.htm

 

Agreed, with my bad eyes LOL I can't detect anything either. I see something sticking out, kind of shredded but not much. Hope you fix her soon. GL

 

Would that not show if your head gasket is leaking? Wouldn't your mechanic do this first, to see if, in fact the head gasket is leaking? A leakdown would show bent valves, bad rings, and a bad HG. You just fill the cylinder with air and measure how much pressure it holds and for how long. You need to know what the original spec is. If I recall, you should have less than 15% leakdown per cylinder and less than 10% hole to hole I think. It's a fairly quick and easy thing to do. It seems you are there now? an air line and a gauge? What if you take it apart and the HG is mint? I guess I'm saying why not take an extra few minutes to troubleshoot just to feel more confident about what it is and maybe isn't?
I'm not sure why you think it's bad. Down on power? Milky coolant?

 

Let me tell you all what happened. I was in 3rd and dropped the hammer. Next thing I know, a black cloud in the rear view. I shut her down right away. Pop the trunk and see coolant everywhere. I hear a hissing sound from the rear right of the motor. Coolant is gushing out by the oil resevoir tank.

I get the car home and raise the rear. See coolant leaking by the head. I check the coolant and its clean.

I then get the car to my shop and they look it over and cant find the leak. They pull the motor and see this HG tore up. My shop pressurizes the coolant system and see's where the leak is comming from. They then remove the spark plug and pressurize the cylinder and you can feel the air comming from this tore up head gasket.

Jag

 

AHHH, OK then, so TECHNICALLY, they did do a leakdown. And it sounds bad bud. Sorry to hear. How much boost? Type of Fuel? Stock motor? Built motor? You said you had studs done? Only studs? GL, hope it's a quick fix.

 

I have a built 3.8l motor with ~2000 miles on it. I was running race mode with 110 Leaded fuel.

 

Sorry to hear Jags. It amazes me that why a built motor with studs would fail at 1.6bar, it's shocking. You punched it with all the correct set up too. Now my question is: "How did they torque the studs?" Not sure if ARP could be the sole cause. It may be the application process. Make sure to get a crazy set up Studs my friend. I will be testing mine in two weeks from now and I will tell you how it holds at XXpsi.

 

Yes your right its puzzling. I built my motor to avoid this situation, but

I will probably end up doing the 12mm studs. This is the **** I hate about modding!

 

Wasn't this the same thing that happened to BigBadBen?

 

Yes but I don't think he had studs at all. His problem was he was on pump at high boost which causes detonation, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I think so and he had a built motor with arp studs too. Correct me if Im wrong. BBB chime in.

Jag