Why would a substantial amount of water leak from this area?

[kaj750]

So far, I have pulled my intake and rocker assemblies, removed the heater hose lines from the firewall, and remove the radiator. I have also unbolted the headers as it turns out I have to remove them to get to the lower bolts on the cylinder heads.

Today, when I raised the driver's side of the vehicle, I got a pretty substantial amount of water pouring out under the car. When I went to look under the hood, I see it running off the bottom corner of the cylinder head.
It looks to be coming from the rear most, lower header bolt hole.

Is it common for header bolts to extend into water passageways?

I will be replacing the cylinder heads with aluminum, so not sure if this will still be an issue.

I'm just wondering if the original owner used too long of a bolt and ended up cracking and/or breaking into an area he shouldn't have

.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

Totally normal

 

[PRHeads]

Stock BBM header bolt holes are wet.

 

[Demonic]

A look at a bare head with the core plugs out will make it easy to understand. Unlike small blocks, all big block exhaust hardware is "wet."

 

[Bird 426]

Not sure about other aluminum heads, but the Trick Flow SB heads do not go into the water jackets.

 

[Billccm]

I found water inside the exhaust port. The studs looked dry to me.

 

[khryslerkid]

I found water inside the exhaust port. The studs looked dry to me.

View attachment 1980076

Clear water or green coolant? Clear water could be condensation. Green coolant...

 

[64BEL]

Clear water or green coolant? Clear water could be condensation. Green coolant...

I thinks sometimes them California boys run straight H2O. Kooky talk to us rust belt guys.

 

[493 Mike]

Must be a cracked head! The budget is blown!
Mike

 

[1KoolBee]

Both my Stealth and Eddie heads have blind exhaust stud holes. I had a leaking exhaust stud on my factory Bee heads where I had a broken stud drilled out and re-tapped. This stuff cured it for good: