"stryped" wrote in message
...
I got to thinking, I know this is a "red neck" way of doing this but
if a person wanted to see if a crack in a head (like my old heads) was
a "functional" leak, would it be possible to somehow plug the coolant
ports in the head with some material like stuffing parts of a rag or
something in there, filling the head partially with water, paint
thiner, etc, and introducing compressed air into a port to see if a
crack between the valves leaked? I just got to thinking about that
last night. I am not going to re use these heads but wondered if it
would work?
The surface tension of water makes it less likely to leak through a small
crack. Kerosene will often do better or a little soap in the water might
work.

I have taped up the ports and pressurized with the outlet of a vacuum
cleaner or an air blow gun to find some leaks. Just a little air pressure
and some kid's bubble solution seems to work pretty good for me sometimes.

It is very controversial but Bars Leaks or other sealers sometime work well.

Don Young