Hi guys, I run a 56 F100 with a 292 y block motor. She was rebuilt around six years ago, starts first time, every time, never uses a breath of oil or water, however, last weekend she decided to blow the passenger side head gasket on 2 and 4 cylinders, my question is, has anyone had this happen and was there a common problem with the y block to cause this to fail, normally the failure is between two cylinders, where the least gasket material is, but this has one good cylinder between the blown cylinders, any pointers to the problem would be a great help.

Did the gasket blow along the bottom of the head or near the top.  If at the top, I would venture a guess that the head bolts were mixed up.  The top row of bolts has 3 bolts of a given length, and two bolts about 5/16" longer.  The longer bolts belong in the front and rear bolt holes.  If they end up in any of the three center holes, they will bottom out in the holes and not compress the head gasket properly.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"