A classic case of being so fearful of a known issue that you concluded that must be the problem before investigating! Well, I don't blame you, really, just glad to hear it was something else (we've all done the same at least once or twice!). You should be good on the head bolts for at least a year, but might want to check earlier since the car was run hot. Always check them if you have the valve cover off for other maintenance. --------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2008 12:48:47 -0700 (PDT) From: d stohler <das24rules@xxxxxxxxx> well, lastnight, i went up to my moms, 45 miles away, in her car. had all the goodies to change my head gasket. but first, i decided to fire it up and make SURE. filled it up with water, cranked her up. hmm.... i ended up pouring like 2 1/2 gal of water in it. almsot completely empty. it got pressurized, and had a leak out of the t-stat housing. tightend it down, it stopped. no large amount of steem like before, no issues what so ever of a head gasket. all head bolts are still TIGHT. conclusion... leaked all the water out of the t-stat housing. boiled what little was left. reason for all the steam in the exhaust: when it finally started blowing steam out, it blew off my overflow hose, and was blowing water/steam strait into the airfilter and SOAKED it. sucking that water into the engine will do that. filled it up good, and drove it all the way home lastnight with no issues at all. -- Frank Swygert Publisher, "American Motors Cars" Magazine (AMC) For all AMC enthusiasts http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html (free download available!) _______________________________________________ Amc-list mailing list Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://splatter.wps.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/amc-list