3.8, replaced headgskt, plugs dry, still losing water

[LeftHander]

Hi all,
first post.
I haved searched prior posts, both manually, and using search function. No joy.
Working on a friends car, '93 Taurus/3.8 v6.
A mechanic replaced the head gaskets less than 10k miles ago. Don't know the details. Now, it has blown the front gasket. #4 cyl had wet plug. Pulled head, found a ball of old gasket material plugging passage near leak. Head warped at leaking cyl surface, had it re-surfaced. Cleaned up valves by power lapping. No coolant in oil.

Looked at water pump, impeller like new (steel), but looked like leaking from seal drain, plus bearings felt less than optimum. Bought new pump. (first pump was not machined right, had to get another!) Also replaced thermostat.
Put it all together. Started up and ran fine, but looking in radiator I saw the water immediately start to rise. No air bubbles, but pushing coolant out. Put the cap on. Several minutes idling had the temp gauge almost to the red. Shut it off, let it cool a few minutes. Opened cap, no pressure. No coolant in bottle, radiator level down. Topped up radiator, started engine, and it started pushing out coolant again.
Pulled all spark plugs. All plugs dry! No external leaks. No coolant in the oil.

Driveway has an incline, and I had the front jacked up while filling cooling system. Had coolant coming out of bypass? hose connections on the intake manifold while
filling system, to ensure it was not airbound.

Little bit of steam out the tail pipe, but not run long enough to dry out system from original leak, so not valid as test data, I think.
I'm stumped. Seems to be consuming coolant, but evidence is confusing. Any one have advice/experience on this?
BTW, new head bolts were used, and am following the repair guide procedures.
Don't want to pull a head if not necessary, gaskets and bolts are expensive!

Will

[Scrapper]

did you have the head tested before putting it back together?? because still sounds like head...

[shorod]

Have you pressure tested the cooling system to see if it holds pressure?

-Rod

[LeftHander]

No, I haven't pressure tested the system, since the water starts to push out while stone cold. Also, no external leaks. I got ahead of myself, and pulled the intake manifolds off before it occured to me to pressurize the cooling system. I'm currently pressurizing each cylinder thru the sparkplug hole. Or, trying to. Getting significant air bleed, maybe past rings on the front (reworked head) cylinders. They have good compression, up from about 160 psi, to about 185 psi after lapping valves. Having trouble getting crank to sit still, while testing rear cylinders.
Didn't have the head tested for cracks, they want $60 each to do this. I'll make my own blanking plate if I have to pull off a head again.

Will

[LeftHander]

DRAT!! Crank bolt came loose while trying to hold piston at TDC. 90 psi on the piston surface, lot of thrust there! Note to self: dial it down a bit! Can't use BDC, the exhaust valve starts to open just before.
Sheesh, now I'll have to pull off the starter to access the ring gear so I can torque the bolt (100-130 ft/lbs). Haven't found an access port, and the book is not helpful... Hmm, maybe use the big air gun...
This has turned into a real PITA project.

Will

[wafrederick]

Should of had the heads checked for warpness too.A new headgasket will not seal with a warped head.If warped,get them milled.The other option was to replace the engine on those,the antifreeze gets mixed with the oil in the bottom end and eats the main and rod bearings.The main and rod bearings do not like antifreeze at all.

[LeftHander]

wafrederick: only pulled one head. Measured head on my granite surface plate, had .006" across the cyl that blew gasket, and .010" across the whole surface. I had this head surfaced (milled).
No coolant in the oil.

Will