1970 Dodge Dart with a 440 burned the head gasket, what caused this?

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1967Barracuda

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I am working on my 1970 Dodge Dart with a 440 in it and the head gasket blew. Just wondering what would cause this kind of failure. It destroyed the blocked and head in the area where the head gasket melted.

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well, that was running awhile like that.

as to how it came to happen? age, neglect, an outside force such as water or debris in the cylinder or an improper tune.
 
Run badly for a long time. Warped head, over heated, uneven torque, cheap head gasket. You may need to deck the block now.
 
That happened to the numbers matching 440 in my 69 Coronet R/T, The previous owner let his younger brother rebuild it in High School Shop class. They had it bored, but I'm guessing they didn't mill the heads and didn't deck the block. The car originally had a 2 core 22" radiator that frequently overheated I found out after I bought it. It might not have helped when I put a solid lifter .310 duration Crower cam in it. It sounded nice for about a hundred miles.:rofl:
 
I had one do that years ago when I let a friend borrow my car amd he put 87 in it. Detonation city for mine.
Wore a groove in the block between two cylinders and ruined one well ported 516 head with big valves.
 
That’s a blue Fel Pro gasket,,,,,looks like it was leaking around #1 and #7 also .
I vote low torque,,,,,maybe the holes were not completely clean,,,,or no lube under the bolt heads .
That head appears to have not been clamped down well enough .

Tommy
 
Pistons look like higher compression ones so lets go.with cheap gas too much timing with a lean carb mixture
 
Too bad, fairly uncommon on a BB mopar.

Yes you need to get any oil and coolant out of the head bolt holes, clean the bolts, lube the threads and bolt heads.

Could have had dirt or debris on the gasket surface not making a good seal.
 
I don't know what caused it, but that block needs to be surfaced. Badly. Very badly.
 
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