Got everything bolted up. Head torqued down. Wires and hoses on.
Still need to attach header pipe on but doesn't have to be right away.
Put coolant in it.

So I attempted to start it. It starts.

two issues. a tiny water leak underneath the manifold (can't see) it is not the freeze plug but between that and the front of the block. Gonna have to take manifolds off to see. It leaked before I tried to turn it over so if I fill it with water after taking the manifolds I should see it. (I hope it is not a crack!)

How long does it take to see oil on the rockers? I only kept it running for 5-10 seconds each time. not sure when it supposed to get messy.
What oils the valves anyway (stupid question)

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hot rodder at heart!

5-10 seconds isn't nearly enough. It may take a minute or more. Usually on fresh engines you pour the last quart of oil fill over the rockers.

Oil travels from the rear cam bearing, up the passage, through the hollow rear rocker shaft bolt, through the rocker shaft, through the center of the rocker to the adjustment bolt and valve tip. If you used the wrong rear rocker shaft bolt, or the rear cam bearing/journal don't have aligned holes, or installed the rocker shaft the wrong way it can affect things. Don't look for a spray under pressure, a drizzle at the most. But yeah, way more time then 10 seconds either way.

Did you take the manifold to head studs off? Those lead to water passages and need sealant on them upon reassembly. A radiator pressure tester may come in handy here.

In answer to your question of taking the manifold studs off. Guess what? they were all left in the block EXCEPT THE FRONT ONE!

Thank you for figuring that one out! I will pull it and use some sealer on it.


Thanks for the oil info too!

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hot rodder at heart!

Welcome. Drain your coolant first before removing the stud unless you want to turn the engine bay into a fountain. Once it's removed, blow the hole dry, spray some brake cleaner in there, dry again, do same for the stud, then sealer and install.

If your taking the manifolds back off I'd just do all of them while your at it. Especially if the head was hot tanked, it could have loosened up the sealant on the studs.

Not planning to take them off at the moment, I will when I update my exhaust. But I will replace he front one. Then again I probably will do it right and take an extra day to do it.


I already drained the coolant down to where it stopped leaking.

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hot rodder at heart!

Got it started, wont idle yet but I got more to do first. I checked the oil and it looked new so I figured I would change it later. Wrong thing to do. There was water in it so now I have to drain it.

Should I flush the oil as well or will changing the oil and filter be enough. Only ran maybe 5 min. total.

other that that the motor sounded good

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hot rodder at heart!

How much water was in the oil? A few spoons of condensation (may look like mayonnaise) is normal since you haven't had it up to temp yet. That will evaporate after it's first long run. If we're talking more then a cup or so well then you have other issues (head gasket, cracked something...).

Not sure what you mean by flushing the oil.

Well it wasn't but a slight discoloring of the oil compared to how perfect it looked before. Man I am out of touch. It sat in a garage for months with the head off before I got it. I bought oil intending to change it before I started it. It is just a little milky.

I thought of getting something to run trough the crankcase but now that I know there can be a little water in there I will change it and the filter just to be safe because I am not sure what the previous owner did.

thanks for the info

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hot rodder at heart!

I'd run it a couple hundred miles first then change it, let the old oil act as the flush. At least get some use out of it before recycling it.

Oh, the flush in a can stuff. I'd stay away from those. If you do need to de-gunkify a motor with deposit buildup there's a flush recipe on here but it doesn't sound like yours is that far gone.

Where head was off for a while, and you know water is present in oil, I would get that contaminated stuff out, refill with new filter, and run it for a while. Be it 50 or 100 miles check to see if contamination returns. Coolant and oil make acid which eats baring surfaces.

If still clean change the oil and filter one more time and drive it. If contamination returns you have to find the problem and repair it; most likely cause is a head gasket failure for whatever reason (head out of true, poor torqueing of head), or cracked head.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC