clownmidget

So I have a 22-RE that was supposedly recently rebuilt and now appears to have a coolant leak from the head gasket at the rear of the head just below the coolant hardline that wraps around the rear of the engine from the exhaust side to the intake side. It is pretty much the rear corner on the exhaust side. When the engine is idling I can see a drop of coolant form from the head/block seam in a cyclical manner, about 1 drop every second. This seems to increase when the motor is revved since when I drive it I can smell the coolant hitting the exhaust and this is more obvious when the engine is under load.

This seems to be a recent development as only this past week or so has it started doing this. The verbal history from the previous owner was that the engine was completely gone through with a new cam from ENGNBLDR.COM, new gaskets, etc. The motor did seem to run fine with plenty of power, good compression, etc. so I was hoping that was one less thing I'd need to deal with in the near future.

So my questions are:
Is it possible that the head bolt in that rear corner is not torqued to spec and allowing coolant to creep past the gasket in a way that properly torquing the head could prevent me from having to pull the head off and replace the head gasket?

Even if it is an improperly torqued head bolt, is it the case that once coolant gets past the head gasket, it is toast and needs to be replaced?

The engine still seems to run absolutely fine with no evidence of coolant entering the cylinders or oil entering the coolant, so I'm still trying to believe that the engine is essentially solid, just was re-assembled improperly.

Sorry for such a lame question but I've searched and didn't find specifically the answers, so any help/assistance/advice is appreciated. Thanks.

clownmidget

Ok, so once I posted the thread tools showed me related threads and found this one that appears to be the same problem...

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...-inside-99023/

any new or additional input from anyone?