I'll cut the 5 month 235 build saga short but suffice it to say that out of everything that could go wrong on an engine build I hit about 80% of them. The most disappointing one of all was after I fired it up for the first time last Sunday night was the coolant leak along the passenger side of the block where it meets the head. It's a really slow weep and after a heat cycle and a re-torque it didn't get better.
I feel like I did everything right; decked the head, checked the block for flatness, ran a die on the head bolts, ran a tap in all the block threads, lubed the bolts, 3 stage torque sequence, used the pattern out of the manual, everything was spic-and-span clean. Still it leaked.
I read a lot on here about whether or not use any gasket or sealer material and the opinions seemed to be split and I ended up not since Fel-Pro recommended not.
It just makes me mad that on this same engine I've had the head off twice during the time I've owned the truck and both times I just reused the ratty old fiber gasket and it just sealed right up.
I guess there really isn't a question here, just a rant on the copper sandwich gasket. I was so disappointed I couldn't even bring myself to write it up here for almost a week. I even thought about using some Bar's Leaks. Then the plan started to formulate. Until I get more information I'm blaming it on the gasket. To get that information I'm going to run a little experiment. I ordered up a fiber Fel-Pro gasket from Napa and it should be here in a week. It's going on, without sealer and if it seals then FelPro is going to get some feedback on the copper gasket from my little experiment. If it doesn't seal then I'll pull it again and add some sealer around the water passages. Sounds like a lot of work but it seems to me there's been a lot of problems with the copper on the 235s. I'll keep you all posted.
