I have a 93 2.2L OHV Cavi that I race on dirt tracks. I just recently finished putting the head back on...did everything I was supposed to, new gaskets, bolts tightened in the right order, torqued according to manufacturer specs, etc.

The other day, when I let it run for about 20 minutes in the garage for the third or fourth time (being a race car, I can't exactly drive it around the neighborhood), after it got done I noticed a TINY drop of fluid on the outside of the head gasket between the 2 and 3 cylinders. Mind you, this is not a "leak," per se, but a drop of fluid I had to shine a light on to see.

I am confident this was not a stray drop of fluid that found its way there from the outside. Seeing as how this is the first time I have put a head back on an engine, I am hoping someone will say, "oh yeah, I've had that before." Particularly, I am hoping that this is something a bottle or two of Bar's (sp?) stop leak will fix. I am hoping that this is not something that will require taking the head back off and putting a new gasket on. BTW, I did re-torque the bolts after letting it run and get warmed up the first time, so I am pretty sure it wasn't just a loose bolt.

Recommendations and reassurances will be most appreciated!

did you have the head checked when you had it off?


____________________________________
Primer Counts as Custom Paint Right?
BTW: This is my Sig.

Fully, including surfacing it to make sure it was totally flat.

Did you use all new bolts? The head bolts are torque to yield, and they cannot be re-used. As for retorquing the bolts once it's warm, I've only heard of that used headers... Not cylinder heads.


Go beyond the "bolt-on".