Infamous black flakes

[Sapling]

Well after 3 rides at 14 lbs I have the black flakes and head gasket sealer color in my coolant bottle. I noticed the flakes, color the first time that I rode it and got it up to operating temp. At that time it was only at 11 lbs. I am not loosing coolant and it is not blowing out the overflow at all. Could this just be the small amount of head gasket areas at each hole on each side of my head shim or am I looking for a bigger problem. I did have a small scratch in the head shim when I installed it but it was very minor.

The motor seams to run real well. What is your guy's opinions on this? Should I go ahead and pull it apart and install a new head gasket and retorque to Ted's specs??? What sealer are you guys using? I used permatex (red) it looks like it warms up and dripped down the sides of the cylinders and is hard as hell. Is this normal??

I might ride it a couple more times and see if I am getting any coolant blow out. I put a clear bottle on the overflow tube to catch anything that comes out.

What do you guys think?? Last thing I want is a bigger problem. I would rather tear it down now and put in a new gasket, head shim minus the scratch and retorque to Ted's specs

Sap

 

[lakercr]

Black flakes in your coolant doesn't necessarily mean you have a problem. As you suggested, there are parts of the stock head gasket that have paint on them, and are exposed to the coolant passages. The bigger indicator of a problem is if you are constantly losing coolant, and have to keep topping off the bottle.

Get some more miles on it and see if the coolant level stays relatively constant (it will vary a bit depending on how hot the motor is).

 

[venom]

looks like it's the wrong time of the month.lol

 

[RED]

Why would you put any sealer on it? If its on the outside of the engine its going to be on the inside to. I stacked 3 stock headgaskets years ago, run up to 20lbs of boost, still running fine, all gaskets installed dry.

 

[lakercr]

Why would you put any sealer on it? If its on the outside of the engine its going to be on the inside to. I stacked 3 stock headgaskets years ago, run up to 20lbs of boost, still running fine, all gaskets installed dry.

He has a head shim. Without Permatex, you would have metal to metal surfaces in contact with nothing in between (like the painted stock gasket has) to address imperfections in the mating surfaces.

 

[RED]

Okay, dealer used to sell cpr kits, before the head shim was the fad, gaskets were stacked and works fine. Then cpr didnt have any ktis ava for his customers, so went with the bd, that comes with alu spacer, and put yami gaskets on both sides of the shim dry, watched the video that comes with there kit. I am interested into why its not okay to put on dry? Just asking cause i dont know. In all the years in fixing and trade school was always told dry.

 

[lakercr]

Okay, dealer used to sell cpr kits, before the head shim was the fad, gaskets were stacked and works fine. Then cpr didnt have any ktis ava for his customers, so went with the bd, that comes with alu spacer, and put yami gaskets on both sides of the shim dry, watched the video that comes with there kit. I am interested into why its not okay to put on dry? Just asking cause i dont know. In all the years in fixing and trade school was always told dry.

Were you putting a complete gasket on either side of the spacer, or separating the 3 layers of the stock gasket? If you used two complete gaskets with the shim, then you're not really putting it on 'dry', as the factory gasket has a coating on it. If you separate a factory gasket and replace the center with a spacer, then I like to use a Permatex product to help seal the imperfections in the two mating surfaces. I wouldn't use a dead cat to brush it on with like in the above pic (sorry, couldn't resist), but a light coat on the shim and undersides of the two gasket halves is worthwhile in my opinion.

 

[rfabro]

I don't see any head shim in that picture.

 

[Sapling]

I sprayed it on lightly to all surfaces. (No dead cat used!) once is warmed up it liquified and ran down the sides. It is not very good looking I agree!!! I did split the head gasket and put one half on each side of the shim.

There is a shim in that picture.

The coolant bottle picture is really not that color it just turned out like that in the picture. It only has a very light hint of red on the inside. The bottle is still white.

I might be removing the shim soon and going Carrilos and JE's soon. The more I learn the more I wish I would have done it to begin with.

Sap

 

[Parker]

I had the three gaskets leak on me, so I went with the shim and separated the factory gasket sprayed gasket and shim both sides with copper spray and it worked great, no leaks.

I'm running 12 PSI in my Nytro on stock compression and pump, RETARD THE TIMING and no problem.

 

[RED]

Thanks lake for the info, yes we were leaving the gasket together. Learned something today, I can see the shim installed, the alu piece between the to pieces of gasket.