Blown Head Gasket

[dpuckett]

..... on Mom's pickup. At least that's what I figure. Has some wetness around the t-stat housing, and oil cooler/ filter housing where it bolts to the block. (THis is where I got on to her a little about keeping a clean engine- MUCH easier to find leaks and troubleshoot. ANyway, my main clue was antifreeze on the dipstick- it is real runny, and green. I almost told her to call a tow truck (were on our way to Sikeston to get some tires, and stopped to fill up), but decided since it had been driven the 10mi up there, it could handle the 10mi back. Not sure how much antifreeze is in the crank case, but this will be the shortest oil change in its life- 20mi.



Besides the head gasket, what else could cause antifreeze in the crankcase? It HAS been about 3 years since it got changed (not my idea- I've told her it isnt real difficult), but it has been doing ok till now. The oil contamination combined with the leak at the right front of the head/ block leads me to believe HG.



And, has Cummins upped the price of their head gaskets like they have their Fleetgard filters? (from $8. 50 for the LF3894 in May to $15. xx in Oct ; fuel filter from $8 to $12 in same time span). Since money is so tight, I was thinking of getting just the HG and injector sealing washers instead of the whole kit, esp since I still have half the kit left over from my HG job a year ago. We can leave the manifold and intake on. VC gaskets are still good.



Daniel

 

[Greenleaf]

I put a new head on a 5. 9 and it still leaks at the front right corner. No engine problems. Just leaks at that same point. The coolant can and will leak @ the oil cooler as well. Just because the head is leaking externally does not mean it's leaking internally. The oil cooler can be checked. It's possible to have a bad cooler but it usually is associated with some oil in the coolant as well.



Scott

 

[dpuckett]

External leaks arent an issue here- it is the coolant in the oil that concerned me. It isnt grossly overfull, and still slippery an hour after turnign it off. Wait, the coolant probably sank to the bottom of the oil pan. When I get the parts and start to take it apart, I'll see how much coolant actually was in the oil. It aint going anywhere now.



-DP

 

[dpuckett]

Biiggg Ooopppss

OK, turned on my brain, and thought, "Hey, if it had coolant in the oil, wouldnt it be foamy and milky looking?" DUH. It just had an awfully green tint to it, and it was kind of runny while it was sitting there idling- splashed as you pulled the dipstick out. I cracked the drain plug after it sat for an hour, and no odd stuff came out into the little cup I had. It bears watching and I am going to pressure test the cooling system. Sorry to alarm you guys. I HATE jumping to conclusions. It's almost like CB Parker is back here

 

[BushWakr - RIP]

Just as an aside... when we do head gaskets on trucks in the shop we torque them down, then bring the truck up to operating temp... let it cool and retorque... . now if you want to really be fussy, you can do another retorque about a week later just to get that last bit of "piece of mind".



bob...

 

[CDegner]

How do you do the retorque since it as torque + 90 degrees?



Carl

 

[RonA]

Daniel.

It would have been a bigger oops if you would have figured that out after you got the head off. Good thing you had a chance to give it some thought. Now quit borrowing your moms truck and racing around town. If she finds out you're the one who almost blew her headgasket, you're going to be cooking your own dinner.

 

[GTX_Joel]

You are on the right track now! You definetely don't want to pull the head for nothing. A carefull and thorough diagnosis is in order. If I suspected a head gasket leak and loss of coolant, the 1st thing I would do is a pressure check of the cooling system. Then I would do a leak down test of each cylinder. I have never done a leakdown test on a diesel, only on gas motors. But I would think you could rig up a tester thru the injector hole. If 1 cylinder or 2 ajacent cylinders have more leakage that the others, the head gasket may have failed. You can look for bubbles in the radiator while the cylinder is pressurized with the tester, too.

After the truck has sat for a day or so with out running, you can slowly loosen the drain plug from the oil pan untill it just drips. See what comes out of the bottom of the pan, oil or coolant.



good luck!

 

[dpuckett]

80mi or so on the tank, so far so good. No foaminess or milky coloring of the oil.



RonA, Mom was driving, I was along for the ride. Besides, hers is stock, MINE is the hot rod (at least by local standards. I still have a single charger, so I dont think it a hotrod). And I already cook my own dinner, except for when my little honey comes down or I go visit her.



You newbies, (and the nervous kids on here), learn from this- like GTX Joel said, a careful and thorough diagnosis is in order for any problem.



Daniel

 

[CDegner]

How do you do the retorque since it as torque + 90 degrees?



Carl

TTT



Anybody?

 

[dpuckett]

Pastor, correct me if I'm wrong. I believe the recommendation from the better shops is to go to a straight torque that is a little more than the 93 ft-lbs the book calls for before doing your 90. (You basically tighten it to where it would be if you left out the 90deg turn) FOr some reason, 120ft-lbs sticks in my mind, but dont go with just cause I say so. Then when you recheck, you just go with the final value (120, 125, or whatever it is).



-DP

 

[Greenleaf]

I looked in my cyl. head notes and found this...











Nothing.











I thought it was 125 lbs ft torque but I'll have to dig deeper into my notes and subscribed threads to know for sure.



-S

 

[Greenleaf]

It's 30,60,90,120,120

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

Occasionally a middle length bolt won't want to go over 115, but that is OK too. Don't do the +90. I found the final torques to vary rather widely when trying that. Some were at 120 at much less than 90 deg. and others took a bit more than 90. They were used bolts, but came up to 115-120 just fine and gave no gasket problem. The first gens used a more primitive head gasket like roofing paper sandwiching a steel inside. use the good marine gasket 3283335 (or the thicker ones -37 or -39 for high performance with a lot fo boost). If you have a coolant leak at the gasket, it needs to be changed, but be sure to clean the surfaces thoroughly, and mop out the bolt holes in the block.

Yes, the oil cooler has given problems, and should be changed if you have an engine failure, by the way. It costs somewhere in the $150-200 range as i recall. The worst part is that the gasket at the block is very hard to scrape off.