Exh leak thru vlv cover bolt holes??

[fastdave]

I was going to adjust my lifters hot. Put the clips on and started the engine. Heard an exhaust leak. Found on both heads the exhaust will come out of the lower valver cover bolt holes when the bolts are removed. these are Trick Flow high port iron heads. Everything else seems fine. Should I be concerned?

 

[iskwezm]

maybe blow by?oh, you said the V/C bolt holes.

 

[truck90278]

I would contact Trick Flow. Normally you wouldn't get exhaust thru those bolt holes

 

[fastdave]

I sent them an e-mail today. Maybe I will hear from them tomorrow.

 

[Edbert]

Could it be an EGR port/provision mismatch? Don't trust me though, I didn't even know TFS made iron heads...LOL.

 

[ForceFed70]

Is it all of the holes, or only certain ones?

The fact that they are "High port heads" leads me to believe the exhaust port comes alot closer to the valve cover surface area. Could be that the valve cover bolt holes ended up being tapped right into the exhaust port. But this would probably mean only 1 or 2 holes...not all of them.

 

[fastdave]

I got an e-mail from Trick flow. They said to put a little high temp thread sealer on the bolts. Everything will be fine. I sent them a reply and asked them just HOW DOES the exhaust get into the bolt holes. The exhaust comes out of the lower bolt holes on both heads. The cast iron high port heads were the first ones built for the mustang. They flow really good-great power. The problem is that headers will not fit-even shorty ones. They hit the firewall because the exhaust port is raised appx. 1". I bought a set of Shelby cast iron headers and ported them to match the exhaust port on the heads. Also I do not use a gasket. I just bolt them directly to the head with no leaks.