Folks,

A while back I asked if anyone had any idea why oil would appear, so slowly as to resemble sweat, between the head and the top of the block along the little ledge over the plugs. I put Carquest "Total Dye" in the oil to add a UV traceable component, ran a bit and hit it with a black light. No doubt about it, glowing oil now. So I caucused with some old racers here who advised I might need to retorque the head. This engine still doesn't ahve 100 miles on it and the head and block were milled slightly to create mating match surfaces.

So yesterday off with the valve cover after driving a while at road speeds, out with the torque wrench, loosen and retorque each head bolt to FSM 65 ft lbs. Drive around some more....leak ALMOST gone. I don't recall now if this was a Victor or Felpro gasket, but it seems that regardless, retorquing was a big help. The oil had to be coming from the gallery where pushrods are installed, I reckon. My gage shows about 45 psi oil pressure so I must conclude 45 psi can defeat 65 ft/lbs. Although tempted to torque to 75 to see what happens, I think that would be a dangerous road to start. Hate to replace that gasket though!

rock
'64d100