The 360 build that has more turns than Willow Springs

1WildRT said

So it was built in 2012-13... How long did it run before it lost the head gasket? Sounds like the heads didn't get torqued properly or those bolts caused issues... One thing when you run ARP or any other premium bolt, they have a higher torque spec, if you use the stock torque spec you never actually properly stretch the fasteners which can lead to a premature failure...

But like I mentioned earlier, pretty common problem on smallblocks...

Blown Head Gasket

Click to expand...

I think it was about 5 years ago that Mike parked the car in disgust. He told me a few times that he got tired of the high performance stuff so he just stepped it down to a stock 360 for the sake of low maintenance. It sat for about a year but around 2021 he and his dad put in the stock engine to get it up and mobile again.
It is quite possible that the heads were not torqued correctly. The different torque spec is an interesting point and it could be the reason for the failure.
I'll add that the gaskets that blew are the cheapest ones that Fel Pro makes....the 8553. They are $20 each at Summit.