armstrrw1

Am just getting back to beloved hobby of tinkering with classic cars. One in my stable is a '57 Chevy powered by a 1970 Corvette 350/350 engine modified and balanced/blue-printed. Health issues have prevented me from properly maintaining and driving this beauty and I found, much to my dismay, that water has leaked into the motor oil! At this point, frustration is raging as I have invested about 5 years of my "hobby" time in this restoration/build. Not to mention many thousands of $'s. Starting today, following a sleepless night, I am beginning the process of isolating the source of the leak (intake manifold, head gasket, crack in head or block …….) and the search goes on!! I'll shout out the result of my investigation/tests and seek others expertise from time to time. BTW, prior to my stroke I amassed a total of 237 miles on this beauty and now she has sit in a HVAC controlled garage space since August, 2015. The best plans of men and mice go awry

My '57. Color is Brandywine Kandy by HOK. All brightwork is either replated, restored, or new. Engine is 355cid, Isky solid roller, heads are GM 350/350, all new wiring w/HEI ignition, and dual quads. Drivetrain is Muncie M21 with 3:73 Yukon gears and GM posi rear.
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oldchevy

Very Nice. Good Luck with it.

armstrrw1

Search for water source has been fruitful. The back six intake bolts are so loose that they can be turned by hand! With only 237 miles since engine was built, I must assume that the combination of using stainless bolts/flat washers, no thread lock, no lock washers, and no gasket sealer set up the perfect storm (fopah!) for the intake gasket to fail at the rear coolant passage on the driver side of the engine. I did use the FelPro intake kit with the thick gaskets. I may have also just wrench-tightened the intake bolts in my rush to finish up a 5+ year resto/build. So much for exercising common sense! Luckily, there appears to be no permanent damage to the engine/components and the cost is several hours of time, the cost of gaskets, oil, filters, coolant, and elevated BP due to the unknown. Engine was stripped down to the heads, cleaned thoroughly, flushed with 6qts. of fresh oil + 1 qt. of Bardahl and allowed to idle for less ~ 5 minutes. Once drained, filter removed and checked for any metal content (none found), it was refilled with 7 qts. of Brad Penn, a new filter, and 50/50 coolant mix was added. Re-started and ran for 10 minutes @ idle with excellent oil pressure + no sign of water in the oil/engine. No strange noises either. I think I lucked out on this one.

73shark

Welcome to the forum. Beautiful car.