Maybe someone can give us some advice.
So obviously the engine was being a massive *****. Not sure how much this thread has been updated, so I'll fill in: engine was running like ass. I thought it wasn't tuned right. Got my compression tester and checked the spark plugs and compression. No idea what it should of been, but they were all within 5psi of each other so that was enough info to know they were sealing good. Cylinder 4 (assuming that's the rear cylinder) had a lot of black shit on it so I cleaned it up. We started from scratch and tuned it, TPS, timing, and whatever else. She was then running really well. As I recall, at this point we checked the oil and found that it was beautifully creamy. Blown head (presumably). Tear it back down. The head had blown off of cylinder 4 (the one with the dirty ass plug).
It appeared the head gasket sealant we had used hadn't adhered properly--presumably because the engine was put back together like 2 months ago so it didn't get to bake on. Some of you may say don't use additional sealant on the head gasket, the stuff we used is meant for that though and it's what I run on my jet ski engine--which I know is kinda far off, a little 2-stroke but I've learned a lot about engine tuning and diagnostic from that little thing and the sealant certainly helps me keep a good sealing head on my jet ski running over a 15:1 compression and race gas. That point aside, we cleaned the head and block yesterday. Used a wire brush and a ton of acetone to clean everything up. Also used a straight edge on the head and a feeler gauge to check if the head was within spec...as far as we could tell it was. Kinda checked the block for its level of flatness but not really. Under the assumption that the head gasket hadn't sealed right because of the sealant not baking on but just out gassing over time and not forming a good seal, we bolted it back up with a new gasket. I torqued the head bolts to spec, in order, doing a 1/4 turn per bolt until they were all tight--they all clicked on the torque wrench during the same turns, so they were all close torque values as I tightened each one.
Fire it up today. No bueno. Oil is milkshakey again and now there is (presumably) coolant coming out of the exhaust. My diagnosis is a blown head gasket again--water is getting sucked into the cylinder during the down stroke and blown out the exhaust. We checked all the spark plugs, none of them had water on them or looked any different compared to the others which is the weird thing. I would at least expect water on a spark plug if it's coming out the exhaust.
We haven't done anything else to it. So to recap: blew head gasket, installed new one, now have oil/coolant mixed in oil pan and coolant/water coming out the exhaust but all the spark plugs look fairly normal. Anyone have any ideas? Otherwise my vote for [MENTION=89531]Cartzo[/MENTION] is to tear the engine down again, and get the block and head surfaced and put it back together... Hopefully someone can see some oversight of mine and has an easier or more solid solution.
Second thing, how do you pull the ball joint of the idler arm into the center link? Banged on it, torqued the **** out of the nut to try and pull them together, even used a C-clamp and a deep socket over the threads of the ball joint and tried to pull them together and no luck. There's hardly any more distance the ball joints needs to be pressed into the center link, but it'd be nice if it was 100% seated. We are 99% sure it's the right idler arm, since it looks identical to the original.
Thanks!
if you are facing the engine from the front looking where the intake bolts to the head, it is leaking at the bottom bolt that is closest to you.
[MENTION=92884]snivilous[/MENTION] and I played hooky from school/work last Thursday and went hard on the 22re. We have torn that top end down so much its all second nature now. We made sure we did everything perfect this time. I cranked it for a good while and it didn't start, but I didn't hear a gasket blow. Toby twisted the distributer, I tried it again, and it fired right up. I pulled it about halfway out of the garage and realized I didn't have brakes. I let her run while we bled the brakes then I drove her to [MENTION=111616]Lanqe[/MENTION]'s house about half a mile away to get a picture with his 88. All it needs now is a good tune and she should be purring once again 
