water leaking out of v.c. screws

[A/C Plug]

Last time I fired up my 383, I was greeted with water running out of most of the valve cover screws, then pouring down onto the headers and steaming. What's the deal on this? I enquired on this long ago somehow else and didn't really get a reason why. Is it possible that I could have screwed down my valve covers (MP black wrinkle valve covers with the longer screws) tight enough to somewhow pierce into the water jackets?

[cudatt]

Its importent to determine if its coolant or plain water ( you do use some form of anti freeze I hope). Plain water must be some kind of condensation buildup in the motor and forming on the underside of valve covers.

[cudatt]

Another thing to check is the exhaust studs are sealed where they screw into the heads, these do go into the water jackets. Good luck.

[5thAve]

Somewhat off topic, my 360 gets foam on the inside of the valve covers quite often. At first I thought it was a headgasket or something (things like that tend to scare me to thinking of the worst) but it's not. I'm assuming that it's just condensation because when you go for a 15 minute or longer drive it goes away and doesn't come back til the the next day the car is out again. It's also still wintery weather here, nights and most days are below freezing and it's damp out.

I guess it's not worth it for this year, but is there anything to run in the oil to prevent this or reduce it for next winter?

[A/C Plug]

I doubt it was condensation buildup as the engine ran for quite some time (20 minutes or thereabouts) and water continued to trickle out.

So, theoretically, if one were to remove all the exhaust studs, it would be normal for water to trickle out the valve-cover screw holes? If so, then it looks like I just need to seal the exhaust studs and I'm set, right?

[paul]

No fluid should be coming out of valve cover bolt holes,unless they have been drilled.The ex. studs do protude into the water jacket and will leak unless they are sealed.

[paul]

No fluid should be coming out of valve cover bolt holes,unless they have been drilled.The ex. studs do protude into the water jacket and will leak unless they are sealed.

[origcharger]

As hard as it is to believe I saw recently on the Moparts Q&A board that someone used too long of bolts on their valvecovers and they broke into the water jacket. It must be very thin or those are some mighty tough 1/4 inch bolts. If this has indeed happened to you please report back. To fix I would suggest replacing the bolts with studs and install them with loctite to seal it up.

[A/C Plug]

Incidentally, it did seem to happen after I installed MP black-wrinkle valve covers, which DO have longer screws, but also have a thick rubber gasket as well as a thicker lip, so I'm not so sure it was related to this (the engine/car have been through a lot and it was some time ago, so I don't know). Studs sound like a good idea. Tried blue sealant before without success, but I'll try the Loctite.