Head gasket was embossed 'top' and installed correctly. I did do a trial fit against the head and the block, don't recall that it would fit in any other position.
Never ran after the water incident therefore no steam from exhaust.
Head, thermastat housing, rocker arm bolts all were checked for length before installing/torqueing - never bottomed and torqued to specs without any issues. Water pump never removed.
All bolts removed were cleaned, as well as bolt holes. Not with a tap, but with a clean bolt and flushed after to 'wash' crap out.
I did remove the valve cover and side cover after the incident and did not see any standing water. But the fluids I did see were very similiar to the water/oil mixture I dumped from the pan. There wasn't a clearly visible difference or separation between the fluids. Surprising.
In an earlier post, I reported using a cooling system pressure checker and could not get a build-up of pressure. I'll try the suggestion of using a stethescope to listen for air leakage with a more powerful air supply.
Might try the same method on each cyl. (rotate eng. to close valves) to possibly get closer to the failure, Thoughts?
Thanks for all the brain-power applied.
Results as soon as other commitments allow.
