Blueox01

You carry plenty of spares.

We can get the rare earth minerals from Afghanistan to build the batteries , oh wait.........

Only gasket that hasn't leaked on me is Cummins, that Mahle (performance gasket) leaked like a sieve. And that's reusing Cummins head bolts, 3 times. Only bolt I ever had stretch was a main bolt. Great so far, but only have about 20k on them.

So far so good , no coolant leak like before, some I attribute to Cumming Head gasket. see how it goes just past the million mile mark.

Maybe because they're idiots?

I didn't use anything this time, set it in the groove, used the above mentioned sleeve retainer/activator and used a big brass drift/BFH and smacked it a couple times. See how it does. Yea, I agree, I was sold on Lucas when my power steering pump was leaking a half Qt a day out the sector shaft seal while on the on the road in NH , stopped and bought a Qt of Lucas Steering stop leak, 3/4 through the Qt the leak stopped. But my engine only had 120K on it and they advertise it to help on startup, My bad. When I rebuilt engine the mains/rods were right on according to plastic gauge, this with the original crank w/853K, still standard Mains/Rods. Learned my lesson the hard way. Now on straight oil Rotella 15-40, only, Donaldson filters.

Always so many "small things" I never seem to get too.

I know this might not be a leak most encounter, but when I rebuilt my engine, I used a little RTV on the o ring for the cam plug in the back of the block, did good for 120K or so, then I added Lucas oil supplement, WOW at start up had near 100psi oil pressure, started leaking like a sieve, any way this time no RTV on O ring but I did use Permatex sleeve retainer # 64000/ and the Surface prep/activator # 24163. Hoping it will last me more than 16 mo's.

Emailed Xotic they tell me finger tight.

I have a friend that is now building the freezers/cooler in some of new love's Truck stops.

Haven't torqued it down yet, but both you and mike gave same advice, so I backed them off a little, but I was of the mindset that the clamping force should be on the nuts being torqued, and not the studs turning in the block.

Thx, Mike. That's what I'm doing, just think I don't want studs to have any "wobble" when torquing the nuts, so I'm gonna bottom them without a torque. I can really see the difference between the Cummins head gasket Vs the Mahle. Used my Porta Crane to set head on, very little adjustment to get it to fall on alignment dowels.

I wondered about lube on the threads going into block, but it doesn't mention it, threads were clean, screwed by hand to the bottom. didn't think they should be loose though. so I used the Allen wrench they provided just to snug. Think I'll pull them out and lube them. Thx Mike!

This is going to be a stupid question, the head stud directions says to screw in the studs without applying torque, but surely the want them tight in the block, not just finger tight, Right. I was able to thread the studs in by hand, but still loose in threads, these should be snug I.E. bottomed out in the block, Correct?