Depending on which gasket was used, sometimes you can get away with no rtv. Honestly I never would though, it’s just too easy to just put a little on, and it gives some peace of mind.So after I got the heads off, I believe I found the issue. When I had the stroker put in, the builder reassembled the entire long block as well and apparently did not use any RTV anywhere besides the china walls. None of the water jackets had RTV, though. Now I’ve beat on this car for the last 7 years, so I guess I’ve got my moneys worth out of it.
The plus side was that the old gaskets both came off in one piece with fairly minimal residue left on the heads and block. Cleanup was pretty also fairly easy as a result.
I started putting the studs in last night but didn’t finish. I’ll snap some pics when I get all the studs in, still waiting on some of the other new hardware as well.
Thanks for all the help and insight!
If you use a fiber non steel core gasket you pretty much have to use some rtv though.