Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) block dowels for head

[NFoster]

Hello I have a question for those of you that have rebuilt the engine in your truck 12v of course. I bought an engine that had a bad water leak between cylinder 5 and 6. Took the block and head to a local machine shop has done a lot of work for us by the way. He said there was a low spot in the block in the same area as the leak all else looked good but the block needed to be decked along with the head milled. Had all the work done looked great nice smooth finish block decked 15thou and the head 10thou. ordered a 20thou head gasket marine unit put the engine together and right from the start had a water leak didn't think much of it and looked things over and found the top radiator hose was leaking so I thought. Tightened the clamp and the leak slowed to a drip decided to go for a spin nothing major just a quick run up the road to check things out about half a mile got out and all looked good. Went back to the shop checked the truck and still dry checked every thing on the truck and went for another drive about 5 miles. Going up a small grade running about 20psi boost and just cruising along and all of the sudden sounds like exhaust leaking from the manifold. Stopped to check it out and there was more water and no exhaust leak limped it back to the shop ran good on the flat with no boost as soon as boost came in you could hear the exhaust leak again. Made it back to the shop and started checking things out and it was leaking compression out from under the head. Took it back down and checked everything again and all looked good. Ordered another head gasket and reinstalled the head and guess what started adding antifreeze and there is a water leak. I have now run the truck up the road again just to see what happened about . 5 mile and there is water in the oil. The only thing I can think of is the dowels are holding the head up off the block and causing it not to seal. Any way I hope someone can give me a little insight on what they have encountered and help me resolve this problem. I have since took the engine back out of the truck and put another one in but would like to get this thing fixed and use it instead of looking at it all the time.



Now some spec. .

Arp head studs

16. 5 timing

913 pump with 8 plate

215 injectors

stock pistons

new gaskets and engine parts from cummins

not the first cummins I've built but first time to see a problem like this.

Took it all to the machine shop and the say they did nothing wrong have another shop lined up to look at it next week just wanting to be prepared.



Thanks for all the insight and wisdom

 

[magoo]

u might wanna check for a crack in the block.

 

[Piers]

Can you see any signs of little or no contact on the head gasket? . 015" off the block & . 010" off the head used with a . 020 oversize gasket should not have the dowels holding the head up. Did you use Cummins # 3283339 head gasket? What did you torque ARP's to & how many times? If using studs for the first time, once you have them all at their final torque, go back and loosen each nut, one at a time, and torque it back to the final torque number 2 more times. On normal ARP's I go to 130 ft lbs, on the 625 studs, go to 160 ft lbs.

 

[MDW]

Can you see any signs of little or no contact on the head gasket? . 015" off the block & . 010" off the head used with a . 020 oversize gasket should not have the dowels holding the head up. Did you use Cummins # 3283339 head gasket? What did you torque ARP's to & how many times? If using studs for the first time, once you have them all at their final torque, go back and loosen each nut, one at a time, and torque it back to the final torque number 2 more times. On normal ARP's I go to 130 ft lbs, on the 625 studs, go to 160 ft lbs.

The master has spoken.

When we had water in the oil it turned out to be a cracked block.