fuelplate+highboot=power&blown head gaskets

[Dbonzi]

Is it just me, or does it seem like when you add a #11 you get more boost and great power and then a blown head gasket.

How can one avoid having to replace the head gasket and still get decent power?

 

[drawson]

I have had a #11 in my truck for 60K , 30K with 370 injectors and a 16 CM2 housing and 38-45 psi boost. Maybe I'm on borrowed time but my head gasket is still OEM. BTW the truck is now at 117K total.

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

Sickly has NEVER blown a head gasket. I've had 3 heads and hence 3 gaskets on the engine, but no gasket problems.

 

[Dbonzi]

Joseph

I did a search on head gaskets and it made me a little nervous about the #11 plate I now have in the pump. It looks like it is a weak spot. Maybe?

Dennis

 

[Don M]

Dennis,



Head gaskets are blown nearly always from too much cylinder pressure. Causes would be: propane and heavy fueling, nitrous and fueling, high boost levels 45 psi and beyond.

Your #11 and little hx35 turbo is not likely to ever blow a gasket.

Guys that chew them usually fuel them and use propane or a nitrous

Don~

 

[Dbonzi]

Thanks Don,

I love to work on the truck but, not something like a head gasket.

OK so I won't worry about it. You guys know best and I trust ya.

Thanks again for putting my worries to rest.

Dennis

 

[LarryB]

I. m not an expert, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.



Seems to me that boost pressure should have no direct effect on the head gasket. The pressures in the combustion chambers reach some pretty high numbers during combustion. You could have 300psi boost and it won't bother the headgasket at all untill you add fuel. I would think the failure of the headgasked might be more related to your torque output.



Larry

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Larry, you're attempting to relate the pressure of additional air being pumped into the cylinders as a DIRECT number of additional cylinder pressure lbs per sq inch - T'aint so!



Each 14 lbs (or so, at sea level) additional cylinder pressure essentially equates to increasing the combustion VOLUME by a factor of one - thus, 14 pounds of boost DOUBLES the effective VOLUME of displacemet and efficiency on an engine - and our 360 cu inch Cummins functions as tho' it was actually a 720 cu inch engine - and at 140 lbs of boost, it would be forced to function like a 3600 cu inch engine!



NOW, if you don't think THAT has any serious effect on cylinder pressures...



CAPEESH?

 

[LarryB]

I guess that Holiday Inn thing is a bunch of crap!



I guess I mean that it is a combination af all variables. Boost, fuel, CR, temp. All combine to create combustion chamber pressure. It takes all these to blow a head gasket, not boost alone. Maybe I'm not looking at this right but it seems that in order to make power you need combustion chamber pressure to push down the piston. Higher pressure = higher torque.



I think he had a weak gasket in the first place.



Larry

 

[Sled Puller]

I like the Holiday Inn joke! Killer! (It is a commercial for you guys who missed it)





I saw a stock head gasket that blew over a 100#. It was a twin set-up so I doubt yours would have got it.



Wh at part of the gasket was blown?



Gene

 

[illflem]

Larry, what you doing at Holiday Inn, wife kick you out?

 

[Bug Out]

Oh great..Just ordered the #11 plate

I finally get my gauges in and order my #11 TST plate and now ya tell me my head gaskets will blow!!!



I can see it now... In the middle of a storm in Texas next month, and pop goes the head gasket!



LOL

 

[drawson]

Chill guy. As I said before I have had the #11 for a long time and even more fuel and boost. I drive pretty hard on my truck at least once a day the peddle hit the metal (keeps the carbon build up down). My head gasket is OEM(118,000 miles). I would worry more about your coolant rotting through than blow from pressure being too high from the plate. Be sides here is the botton line this plate just lets you use more fuel. It is the max fuel stop, the only way you get to max fuel is using your right foot.



If you are always in the throttle that far, you must have some pretty long, strait, dry roads and no cops around.



Here is what blows head gaskets...



1) Overheating the cooling system or too high EGTs. Watch the gauges



2) The coolant becoming acidic(sp) and rotting it way through. Change the antifreezeevery two years and don't use soft water to top off



3) Too much propane(fuel) The #11 plate is way shy of the too much fueling (DD super mentals are getting up there)



Bug Out, Don't worry be HAPPY, you will wonder why you didn't do this earlier

 

[Bug Out]

Not worrying.

I don't hot rod at all. I use the truck as strictly as a tow vehicle for my 5th wheel, and even then I take it fairly easy on it.



I just want that "extra push" when needed when going down the road.



Even now it has sufficient power to get me where I have to go. I may have to drop to 4th on some hills,but soon that won't be. .

 

[BigBadDodge]

#10

I have a number 10 with stock turbo and hot rod all the time, always getting into the pedal, I see 42psi boost and have not blown a head gasket .



Scott

 

[Brian Cobb]

Mine went

I blew the head gasket out on my engine, at 101,000 miles.

I do run the propane+ a little extra fuel. The gasket popped near number 6 and put oil in the radiator.

Yes, it's a pain in the *** to change out, took me all week to get the job done!

I don't know to much about the fueling increases but I'm running around 400cc of fuel at 1200 rpm. Add that with the propane and after 80,000 miles of this, maybe this can be a problem.



Brian Cobb

 

[R.E. Miller]

Random thought.

When I think of these boost #'s the headgasket passes through my head, but what about the bottom end Ha ha just a thought, please don't flame me for the snide comment

Bomb on,

Russell

 

[Sled Puller]

I wouldn't worry about the bottom end. I saw a tear down of one of our little Cummins, well over 800hp. It was ran about three years in extreme race conditions, the bearings showed wear, on the tops, but not grenading type wear.



It was running DELO! Changed about every other week.





Another one had the pump stick, it ran until it blew, bent two rods, put it back together! These engines are tough!



Gene

 

[Roger rodbolt]

Timing and headgaskets??

No one has mentioned excessive timing as a factor in blown headgaskets. I know that timing should be reduced with propane, how do you believe that timing should be adjusted relative to high fueling/high boost levels?? High cylinder pressure equals strain on headgaskets... .