I finally started the car last weekend and immediately blew the headgasket. I never even drove the car just idled it. Milky oil, etc.

Tonight I took the head off and as I was undoing the nuts on the ARP bolts, the entire bolts would unscrew. This happened on the majority of bolts, is that normal?

Everything looks fine. I know I torqued in the right sequence, and I double checked as I disassembled everything was torqued right. I'm puzzled as to why it blew only just idle. Both the head and the block were resurfaced so they should be perfectly flat. Any ideas?

Another simple question: the headgasket has one side that is all black and one side with a shiny section around the cylinders. Which side goes up? I just want to make sure I did it right..

 

Sounds like you may have a stripped thread and the nut is stuck on the stud. As far as the headgasket, the shiney side should face towards the block if i remember right. It also should have "up" stamped somewhere on it.

 

did you torque the actual head bolts before installing the head? they are supposed to be torqued to i believe around 10-15 ft lbs. this could have been part of the reason for a blown head gasket in the first place

 

All of the threads look good. The arp are supposed to be finger tight, however I actually put them in with a little torque so taht shouldn't have been a problem. I put the headgasket on originally shiny side down, black side up but didn't see an 'UP' stamp on it.

 

The same thing just happend to me. Look at your dowel pins. They should still be in the head. Now get a 13mm socket and put over it and tap them in. How much did you take off the head and block. The dowel pins might be bottoming out. What i did was took them out and grind them down a little. The arp should brake lose and then you have to use your finger to losen them instead of using the rachet i found that out best. But check your dowel pin that happen to me with out evening starting the motor.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by integra95 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The same thing just happend to me. Look at your dowel pins. They should still be in the head. Now get a 13mm socket and put over it and tap them in. How much did you take off the head and block. The dowel pins might be bottoming out. What i did was took them out and grind them down a little. The arp should brake lose and then you have to use your finger to losen them instead of using the rachet i found that out best. But check your dowel pin that happen to me with out evening starting the motor.</TD></TR></TABLE>

This is exactly what plauged me for a long time. I had a slow leak along the front of the block, mostly at the front corners where the dowels are. None the less, I shaved them down and put a new gasket on and its all fun and games now.