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Take the gasket off put the head back and see if the bolts will torque down, but first thread the bolts down on the studs, make sure no problem with threads .
Hopefully it's jus the gasket, couple years back my S&S111 blew a gasket and looked like that except it was the right rear corner, scraped surface with a razor, a new gasket with a light spray of Coppercoat, still going.
I'd say you found the problem if the bolt was gone .
S&S makes good stuff and I'm a cometic fan when it comes to gaskets.
Find yourself something flat like a glass pane or a 12" marble tile and sit the head on it after you clean the gasket surface, checks it for flatness, They can warp under some circumstances.
This is from a S&S manual, if you go back with S&S graphite head gaskets, you can set your torque wrench to 40 ftlbs when doing the 90 degree turn just to give an indication if everything is ok, the head bolts should all be close on rotation degrees when 40 hits, and close to the end of the 90 degree turn.
Also with S&S graphite head gaskets, do a couple heat cycles at idle only, don’t crack the throttle.
20653689[/url]]This is from a S&S manual, if you go back with S&S graphite head gaskets
Graphite…is this what I had?
I’ll definitely cross check with the 40# / 90 degree
I was very meticulous with the breakin procedures. Warming up before each ride also, not a weep or drop of oil in 1000 miles. Put base gaskets on dry too, like the S&S tech said.
S&S and Cometic says dry, I still spray Coppercoat on all head and base gaskets, let it just about dry before assembly.
I used the S&S gaskets on my 111 only because I had them on hand left over from another project, otherwise I would've used Cometic MLS
If you go with Cometic, it's a different torque sequence, they don't use the 90 degree turn, just 5 steps up to 42 ftlbs, but I still keep tabs on it by marking all the head bolts at the 2nd step of 14 ftlbs, then at the end the bolt marks should all be close
Problem with coppercoat or any spray on sealer and head gaskets is it can change the torque and in some cases allows the gasket to squish out of position, why they suggest dry.
I'll use copper coat on solid copper head gaskets like in my shovel but I'm running serious compression too.
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Blown Headgasket
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