Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) little freeze plug at back of head repaired!

[emarsh]

The dealer wanted to pull the head, and the big diesel repair shop wanted $1350 to pull the head to do it. I did it myself, cost $12 for a 4 inch exhaust pipe clamp repair kit, plus 35 cents for the 1/8 th inch brass pipe plug and 3 hours of my labor (relatively cheap!). This is how I did it. After careful observation, it was determined that if the head pipe was out of the way I could get to the leaking welch plug. This involved cutting the exhaust pipe behind the trans crossmember (where it will be easy to have rewelded) I used a repair clamp for now to resecure it after the work was done; removing the headpipe after dropping the rear trans crossmember and removing the headpipe rubber mount at the rear of the trans housing. The trans was supported by a jackstand, and the truck was on a 7,000 # lift. I cut off a small drill bit so that it would be shorter in a makita right angle battery drill and drilled the leaking welchplug. I then used the right angle drill with a driver to drive a "tek" screw with a hex head through that hole and used an upholstery pry tool to lever the plug out. From there it was use a 1/8 th inch pipe tap to tap the block. The rest was easy! And I did not have the dealer messing everything up while they attempted to do the repair. Possibly a younger man could have done it without the lift, but at the least you would need truck ramps to get the truck high enough to get the exhaust out. Perhaps this will help others out with this same type leaking problem!

 

[BKenny]

This is what i love about this place tips like this keep you away from the stealerships oh i ment dealerships :-laf