That Saturday the 383 finally fired, and Monday it locked up tight
Had the best day of my whole restoration run two weekends ago in Dallas. My '68 Charger's 383 had been sitting for 7 months after I rebuilt the top end, and on Saturday morning it fired up on the third crank, idled smooth at 850 rpm. I was so pumped I took it around the block twice, no overheating, no leaks, even the old Holley stopped flooding out. Then Monday evening I went to pull it back into the shop to start the interior, and the starter just clicked once. Pulled the plugs and found coolant in cylinders 2 and 6, so the head gasket let go on the passenger side, probably from a torque spec I rushed through. All that progress vanished in one bad evening, and now I'm tearing the front end down again to check the deck surface. Has anyone else had a great running engine just die from a gasket after a short drive, or was this just my bad luck with reman heads?