A severely warped head yes, but more likely a crack in the water jacket. Not uncommon with these heads when they get hot. We’ve welded many of these heads before because of this.
Also possibly the HG was damaged before installation. I’ve had a few of the VR gaskets cracked right out of the packaging.
Also, did you use NEW OEM headbolts and follow the proper OEM torque and yield sequence? IIRC, it’s a torque @ 20nm, back off, torque 20nm, then a double 90 yield. Each done through a complete sequence. Headbolt threads lightly oiled w/ 5w30
Either way it sucks as you know, stupid head’s coming off again
