[Igofastr]

So, time for an update.

I did torq check the head bolts, and found them to be fine. At that point, I drove the car over to Tom at FE Specialties to pull the head and take a look. He called me with the results, and I went by after work to see for myself.

What did Tom find? Well, a set of felpro blue head gaskets were used, a good thing, but once those were pulled out of the way, it was clear for all to see that the block had not been properly decked. There were fine grooves across the surface indicating two things...the mill/hone (whatever they use) was not centered and was moving too fast (or at least a nice smooth fininsh job was not done). End result was a surface too rough for the gasket to seal.

The best way to fix this is to disassemble the block and re-deck the surface...essentially a total rebuild. Not a pleasant surprise on a motor with only 2K miles on it. There were other problems too, but not related to the leak. As a total rebuild would definitely not set well with the wife, I opted to have Tom give it a try with some composite gaskets which may fix the leak, but cost me some compression.

Not a happy day.

If anyone wants to know the name of the shop that built the motor, they are based in Texas, and I'd be happy to give it to you via PM. No, I didn't buy it directly from them, but from one of their customers. The shop and seller seemed to be friends, and the shop owner confirmed that he'd built to motor.

I doubt that I have any recourse, and will have to chalk it up to experience.