TO30 HEAD GASKET

It appears that the head gasket is the culprit.
My question is should the head gasket be installed dry or not ?

The manual states to coat both sides of the gasket with a commercial sealing compound and if no compound is available to use cup grease. Is this practice still good for today's head gaskets from Tisco and what sealant should be used ?

When assembling the head and tightening the bolts is it acceptable to use a crow foot and torque wrench for final torque and I would assume that the engine should be run and bolts re-checked as with adjusting the valves.

Thanks for the help.

Before you put the head on did you check to make sure that your head was wasn't warped? If you had it rebuilt, the shop would have checked it and machined it flat if it was out of tolerance (0.020").

When I put mine one I used a copper type gasket sealer that was in a spray can. I torqued in three stages, ran the engine and repeated three times. I've had no problems after 50 hours.

No reason you can't use a crowfoot wrench for final torque. You just have to adjust for the difference in the moment arm, which is longer than if you used a socket. The problem i had with a crow foot was that it spread on me at high torque. I ended up using a box wrench and adjusted the torque reading for the difference in moment arm.

Hope this helps.

The head was completely re-done for valves and the surfaces machined to mate to block and in/exh manifold.

Can a box end type wrench be purchased to work
with a 1/2" torque wrench or should I make one ?
I will look for the spray sealant today.
One other question, after rebuild the engine runs
a strong 40-42 psi oil pressure. I rebuilt the oil pump and wondered if I should adjust the shims of relief valve to lower it back to 30 psi
as stated in the manual.

Thanks again.