Head gasket placement q

my66coupe

Founding Member
Apr 30, 2002
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Arizona fountain hills
Ok recently my car has been running a little hot ( as the factory guage is telling me) anywho while driving around, after a while, my car will rev up reallly sloppy and kinda sluggish, it looses pleanty of power and cant even pull a breakstand. I was wondering if the heating issue would affect this? As soon as it cools down, performance is back up to notch. Soo I have been thinking and when i assembled my long block, I remember when placing the headgaskets, that the passenger side bank had the "front" stamped on both sides of the gasket, the drivers did not soo i simply placed it as if it were like the drivers......The gasket allowed coolant to flow through the front of the engine but blocked off the back, and the same with the drivers side...Is this the correct placement? Also I remembered while watching my builder assemble my bottom end, he torqued the connecting rod bearing caps to 25ftlbs, and i read somewhere that K codes and Mexican 302s, (which I have) are supposed to be torqued to 45 ftlbs. Would running the car for a while cause the rod bolts to strech if they were undertorqued causing the above simptoms???? Last question. after starting the engine, I have my overflow filled to the proper level, when returning it has a little more than when i left, and when it cools down again there is less than when i originally started off with.....Is my cooling system still working out some bubbles or what? where is all this coolant going? And no its not burning it. Thanks alot guys

Mike
 
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both head gaskets should be installed with the front water jacket holes blocked. This forces coolant thru the block first, then up the back thru the heads. If they werent installed properly , it would definitly cause the rear of your engine to get very hot from lack of coolant. and you might find your pistons overheating to the point of damage. Better look into it asap.
 
Ya just ran through some pictures from the engine buildup and guess what....The damn passenger bank is indeed installed wrong!!!!!!!!!!!! What should I look to determine any damage to the piston....will it be that obvious?
The car was never ran for long periods of time and probably has less than 20 miles on her....

Mike