1996 oil leak after replacing head gaskets | Ford Thunderbird forum club group 1955-2005 models
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1996 oil leak after replacing head gaskets

Kane
Reaction score
6
Thunderbird Year
1995
Post does not meet subject criteria
I blew a head gasket on my 96 4.6 Dropped the cradle out and removed the heads. I sent them to the machine shop we use and head the heads "decked" and refaced the valves and seats.
Now, after driving it for a week or so I kept smelling a "burning oil" smell. At first I figured (well...we just had the engine out and apart and put it all back. Probably some residual oil ect". We put is up and looked and I have a slight oil leak (dripping down on the driver side cat) coming from the driver side rear of where the head/block come together. It's not the valve cover. You can look up under it and see the oil seepage coming from the head gasket area. Now, I'm an "old guy"...been fooling with these old cars for over 60 years and I have NEVER SEEN one leak like this!
I'm hoping someone can steer me in the right direction or am I looking at dropping the cradle again and replacing the driver side head gasket again?
TIA
Kane

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Such leaks can be deceptive so make ABSOLUTELY sure the leak is NOT the valve cover, sometimes cleaning the area off and putting some talcum powder over the suspected leak trail will confirm it when it reoccurs.. I guess the next questions are if could you have missed torquing the head down in the right sequence and the right ft-lbs and finally, could you have munged the gasket on installation. ?

Worst case is if the shop boogered up the decking and now you have a fitment problem - if you wind up pulling the head off have them recheck their work...
 
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