Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
It's my first time in. Sorry about the novel.
I'm minding my own business lolly gagging at 45 to 50 mph behind traffic when I looked down and saw my temperature gage pegged high. I turned on the heater and got cool air, oil pressure was normal, no steam from under the hood, no smells, no smoke or steam from the exhaust. I raised the hood and saw sludge spewing from the coolant reservoir. Dipstick had water on it but the oil color was normal. I got towed to a friends shop and the consensus was an oil cooler leak. I pulled radiator hoses and nothing came out. You could dip your finger into the top of the radiator, pull out a pile of sludge and hang it upside down and it wouldn't even fall off. Cleaning it ultimately took over three days of chemical soaking and flushing. In the mean time I got the oil cooler out and it tested fine so we were faced with a head gasket replacement. Had to do some clutch and flywheel work anyway so we pulled the engine rather than trying to work it in place. My friend Chris Chambers of Chambers Construction can do this in his sleep and offered to help (OK do the job). Life saver.
The truck has 126,000 miles on it. No modifications until we got over 100k miles. You can see below what I've got into it now. Pulled the head and found six of the head bolts with heavy pitting. It looks like electrolysis, but can't be on a non-sleeved engine, right? Cummins said I'd had a head gasket leak for a LONG time to get this pitting. He said it's possible the head wasn't torqued properly during initial assembly. Some of my "expert acquaintances" said that if I'd ever pulled my radiator cap or checked the oil I'd have noticed it long ago. Well, my oil gets changed about every six weeks, I do pull the dipstick, and I seem to be under the hood weekly. I'd drained and flushed my radiator in January. Other people told me that I didn't have to worry about the valves at 126k miles and bearings would all be fine. I took a rough measurement on valve contact area and found it at about . 095". Max spec is supposed to be . 080". I sent the head to my new favorite machinist (Engineous Machine Works in Kingston, WA). Had the valves done. The fire rings had worn into the head some and we supposedly had about a . 008" warp in the head overall so we decked the head. Had him port the exhaust side under the valves. We added 60 pound springs all around. We put the head back on with a . 25mm oversized gasket (about . 010").
Pulled the pan. Main bearings looked like new. Rod bearings were into the copper at the impact area. $56 and about 30 minutes of Chris's time replaces those so we did. If we were into copper at 126k miles what do they look like at 300k? Didn't pull pistons. You could still see the honing marks in the cylinders. It costs $33 per hole to put new rings in and I was already in it more than I'd planned. Pulled the front end off. Still had the infamous dowel. We took a center punch and peened the aluminum next to the pin in about 4 places.
I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I'd had my flywheel turned on a new machine at a NAPA store before putting in Donnelly's 3,900 pound Sacks. Also, I slipped it bad goofing around at the last BD Dyno didn't work Days. I don't want to tell you what my new machinist friend said about the flywheel surface but I'd tell anyone to stay away from your parts stores. Take them to a real machinist. He fixed it and I removed two of the six pucks on Joe's recommendation. Joe also said if I was ever going to come off the porch I should take out three but I haven't slipped it since.
I bought the 4" exhaust pipe from BD to get me from the turbo to the bottom of the truck. Pulled everything else out and put in 5" pipe with a custom 5" muffler. We tucked it up close to the body and ran straight over the rear axle with no bends until a slight downward turn at the axle and a 90 degree bend to get out the side. Added a 24" long 5" turn down tip and it looks and sounds great.
EGT's? Absolutely awesome. I didn't hit 1500 until over 85 mph from a slow rolling start. Never even heard of someone running so cool for so long with my kind of power (maybe my circle is a little small). The other very noticeable side effect was the elimination of the BLACK smoke. You know the kind where no one can see through the intersection after you launch. I still smoke, but it's gray. I wonder if the valve job was responsible for that, or the better flow via porting and the exhaust. Then I added my last toy, the BD Engine Brake. Guess what. BIG impact on my EGT's. It's coming out. I'm going to try the 4" in line unit. I've decided I like the brake, but not at the cost of the EGT's. Don't know what I was thinking. I put a valve in the middle of the tightest restriction in the system (the 3" elbow).
We're doing my friend Gary's truck in two weeks. We've ordered the new head bolts, upper gasket kit with a . 5mm over head gasket, front end gaskets, pan gasket, rod bearings, water pump gasket, and are hoping to make just the one trip to Cummins instead of the six I made. Chris is pulling the engine for us and Jim at Engineous Machine Works is doing the head work. Gary is responsible for my exhaust system as it's a copy of his. We're wondering if the head work will cut down on his black smoke. I'll let you know.
I'm minding my own business lolly gagging at 45 to 50 mph behind traffic when I looked down and saw my temperature gage pegged high. I turned on the heater and got cool air, oil pressure was normal, no steam from under the hood, no smells, no smoke or steam from the exhaust. I raised the hood and saw sludge spewing from the coolant reservoir. Dipstick had water on it but the oil color was normal. I got towed to a friends shop and the consensus was an oil cooler leak. I pulled radiator hoses and nothing came out. You could dip your finger into the top of the radiator, pull out a pile of sludge and hang it upside down and it wouldn't even fall off. Cleaning it ultimately took over three days of chemical soaking and flushing. In the mean time I got the oil cooler out and it tested fine so we were faced with a head gasket replacement. Had to do some clutch and flywheel work anyway so we pulled the engine rather than trying to work it in place. My friend Chris Chambers of Chambers Construction can do this in his sleep and offered to help (OK do the job). Life saver.
The truck has 126,000 miles on it. No modifications until we got over 100k miles. You can see below what I've got into it now. Pulled the head and found six of the head bolts with heavy pitting. It looks like electrolysis, but can't be on a non-sleeved engine, right? Cummins said I'd had a head gasket leak for a LONG time to get this pitting. He said it's possible the head wasn't torqued properly during initial assembly. Some of my "expert acquaintances" said that if I'd ever pulled my radiator cap or checked the oil I'd have noticed it long ago. Well, my oil gets changed about every six weeks, I do pull the dipstick, and I seem to be under the hood weekly. I'd drained and flushed my radiator in January. Other people told me that I didn't have to worry about the valves at 126k miles and bearings would all be fine. I took a rough measurement on valve contact area and found it at about . 095". Max spec is supposed to be . 080". I sent the head to my new favorite machinist (Engineous Machine Works in Kingston, WA). Had the valves done. The fire rings had worn into the head some and we supposedly had about a . 008" warp in the head overall so we decked the head. Had him port the exhaust side under the valves. We added 60 pound springs all around. We put the head back on with a . 25mm oversized gasket (about . 010").
Pulled the pan. Main bearings looked like new. Rod bearings were into the copper at the impact area. $56 and about 30 minutes of Chris's time replaces those so we did. If we were into copper at 126k miles what do they look like at 300k? Didn't pull pistons. You could still see the honing marks in the cylinders. It costs $33 per hole to put new rings in and I was already in it more than I'd planned. Pulled the front end off. Still had the infamous dowel. We took a center punch and peened the aluminum next to the pin in about 4 places.
I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I'd had my flywheel turned on a new machine at a NAPA store before putting in Donnelly's 3,900 pound Sacks. Also, I slipped it bad goofing around at the last BD Dyno didn't work Days. I don't want to tell you what my new machinist friend said about the flywheel surface but I'd tell anyone to stay away from your parts stores. Take them to a real machinist. He fixed it and I removed two of the six pucks on Joe's recommendation. Joe also said if I was ever going to come off the porch I should take out three but I haven't slipped it since.
I bought the 4" exhaust pipe from BD to get me from the turbo to the bottom of the truck. Pulled everything else out and put in 5" pipe with a custom 5" muffler. We tucked it up close to the body and ran straight over the rear axle with no bends until a slight downward turn at the axle and a 90 degree bend to get out the side. Added a 24" long 5" turn down tip and it looks and sounds great.
EGT's? Absolutely awesome. I didn't hit 1500 until over 85 mph from a slow rolling start. Never even heard of someone running so cool for so long with my kind of power (maybe my circle is a little small). The other very noticeable side effect was the elimination of the BLACK smoke. You know the kind where no one can see through the intersection after you launch. I still smoke, but it's gray. I wonder if the valve job was responsible for that, or the better flow via porting and the exhaust. Then I added my last toy, the BD Engine Brake. Guess what. BIG impact on my EGT's. It's coming out. I'm going to try the 4" in line unit. I've decided I like the brake, but not at the cost of the EGT's. Don't know what I was thinking. I put a valve in the middle of the tightest restriction in the system (the 3" elbow).
We're doing my friend Gary's truck in two weeks. We've ordered the new head bolts, upper gasket kit with a . 5mm over head gasket, front end gaskets, pan gasket, rod bearings, water pump gasket, and are hoping to make just the one trip to Cummins instead of the six I made. Chris is pulling the engine for us and Jim at Engineous Machine Works is doing the head work. Gary is responsible for my exhaust system as it's a copy of his. We're wondering if the head work will cut down on his black smoke. I'll let you know.
