Hi,
I pulled my valve covers on a freshly built 383 to fix an oil leak and noticed coolant in there. :( Seems to be coming from the middle bolt and the one right next to it. I used ARP sealant and torqued them all to spec when I built the motor. What could be wrong and what should I do to fix it? Could this have damaged anything else... it's not even broken in yet.

Can I just drain the coolant via temp sender (Is that a low enough level?)pull those 2 bolts one at a time and reseal and retorque them? What should I seal them with?

Thanks
http://www.melore.com/engine/leak.jpg

bump

that's not low enough, need to drain below the level of the lowest thread.

one at a time, pull them, buff the threads on a wire wheel, clean with brake clean, wipe RTV into the first few threads, re-install.

Wow, 8 minutes till first bump.

sometimes they just quit leaking on their own after a few cold/hot cycles.

Phil,
I tried the ARP sealer a few years ago and really did not like it. Dont remember how I ended up with a tube of it, but I went back to my old standby Permatex Indian Head gasket shellac. Lately I have also been using the Permatex white teflon thread sealer, it seems to lubricate a little better than the Indian Head.

YIKES!!!,you guys scare me,i used the ARP thread sealent in 2001/4k miles ago for the head bolts on my 396 and not coollent issues thus far,i must be lucky.

In the past i also used indian head shellac for all head bolts with no issues ever and i decided to do things right using NEWER TECH arp thread sealent with the arp head bolts insted of using the 40-50+ yr old Indian Head Shellac tech.

But since then i have seen mult poeple having coolent leaking issues when using the arp thread sealent on head bolts and i will never use it again. I will default back to the ole reliable Indian head shellac that has never let me down in the 37yrs i had been using it .

Scott

are you sure its the bolts leaking-it looks like it has pretty large valve springs, sometimes when their cut for larger springs, they get into the water jackets-if its the bolts leaking(i assume stock block, not aftermarket with blind holes) you could drain the block, pull the bolts and reseal-i would spray some brake clean down in the bolt holes, as any antifreeze residual will affect the new sealer-i used to never have leaks, but seems the new antifreeze's leaks more than before-the permtex non harnening works pretty good, or as noted, a shellack type (aircraft type)
OR, go to the chevy dealer, get a "pill" or tablet of the new leak sealer, used by gm on a lot of the alumn engines, drop it in when the water is hot, leak gone-this stuff will clog up a funnel with a strainer when refilling the radiator

Make sure it's not coming from your intake to head interface. I have used permatex thread sealer on head bolts with good results. Dave.

I'm getting a 350 ready to put in our el Camino. The intake bolts had been torqued a while ago. I checked them and they were way loose. I guess the gasket had compressed and the bolts needed a re-torque. GM has stop leak tablets that you can put in the rad. They used to put one or two in each rad before startup on the line. I don't know if they do that any more. I'll be doing it just for safety sake. Bearings and antifreeze don't mix at all.