A couple years ago I had a slight head gasket leak by the thermostat housing and ended up over torquing the head bolts by 5 or 10 ft lbs to stop it. Not exactly a smart move I know but was in a bind, 3 hours from home, and trying to leave a location. 

 

A lot of things have happened since then and I smooth forgot that I ever did that until I noticed a water leak today. It's leaking from the exact same spot as before so I see a new head gasket in my future. 

 

Now I've read a buch of different things about the cause of a leaking HG including a cracked or warped head, both of which would suck. With 300k miles on the truck how likely is it to be something serious like a cracked or warped head? I'm wanting to be as prepared as I can to minimize downtime once I'm ready to pull the head.

 

I'm planning to have the head resurfaced, check the valve seats and grind them if necessary, replace valve seals, and install head studs and 60lb valve springs.  

What is yall's favorite penetrating oil to use on rusty bolts like on the manifold and turbo?

PB blaster for me. If that doesn't work I bring the torch out

15 minutes ago, The_Hammer said:

What is yall's favorite penetrating oil to use on rusty bolts like on the manifold and turbo?

Kroil  and PB Blaster

I use a 50/50 mixture of acetone and ATF on anything I put heat too, PB blaster just smokes away.  I've done many rusty manifolds and turbine housings this way with good luck.

PB Blaster for the stuff I'm not going to heat and 50/50 acetone/ATF for the things I will. Sounds good guys, thanks.

Got the head off today with the only issue being two broken manifold bolts. 

 

It appears that the head gasket has been replaced somewhere along the line with the crappy Fel-Pro gasket. It's easy to see why I was leaking water so bad.

 

The cylinders all looked great, especially for 300k miles.

 

I forgot to get pics of the valves and valve seats but they looked really good as well.

 

I'm dropping the head off at the machine shop in the morning and should have it back Tuesday or Wednesday. 

Edited July 18, 20168 yr by The_Hammer

The crappy fel-pro's are way worse.  What you have appears stock.

 

 

So Cummins changed the design somewhere along the line?

Coolant pH did help that gasket to fail...

9 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Coolant pH did help that gasket to fail...

 

I don't doubt it. I've been fighting rust in the coolant system since owning the truck. I've flused the system until the water comes our crystal clear, fill with premix and a month or so later it's brown again 

7 minutes ago, The_Hammer said:

I've flused the system until the water comes our crystal clear, fill with premix and a month or so later it's brown again 

 

Something is altering the pH rapidly if in a months time the coolant is discolored. Then premix is already mixed with distilled water. The coolant problem will have to solved rapidly to prevent more damage in the future.

Personally I don't believe that I'm removing all of the rust. Once the head is back on I'm going to do a flush with something like citric acid.

Head is good, no cracks. It's resurfaced and ready to go, will pick it up in the morning.

8 hours ago, The_Hammer said:

Personally I don't believe that I'm removing all of the rust. Once the head is back on I'm going to do a flush with something like citric acid.

 

 

I would be careful with acids. Again this is what created the gasket problem so if you do flush it with citric acid make sure to flush it all back out. 

1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

I would be careful with acids. Again this is what created the gasket problem so if you do flush it with citric acid make sure to flush it all back out. 

If I do go that route I will flush the system several times before filling it with coolant.

I'm not sure when they changed the gasket, the '98 I did had the same one.

 

Leaking from by the thermostat housing is somewhat common thing.

 

After having my engine sit empty for years, I had a lot of rust issues too.  I tried flushing Lord knows how many time to no avail, pulled the radiator out many times.  I gave up and plan on running a coolant filter temporarily at least.

 

Some one post here a product sold in a gallon jug that will remove the rust and scale in a engine. I know its here but I can't remember the name of the product. It's buried in the blackhole called the MySQL server.

What coolant were you running?

@Dieselfuture I can't remember what I had in it other than it was green 

 

@Mopar1973Man  Would this happen to be the stuff your thinking of? https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-tc001?seid=srese1&cm_mmc=pla-google-_-shopping-_-srese1-_-summit-racing&gclid=CPDrgNbT_s0CFcKGaQodUH8Fag&ibanner=MobileSwitchNo

Edited July 19, 20168 yr by The_Hammer

@Mopar1973Man If this was your truck how would you go about flushing the rust out of the cooling system?

 

Have yet another issue. Like a dummy I forgot to unplug the coolant temp sensor when removing the head and broke the sensor and the flipping plug   Where would a person find another plug at?

Edited July 19, 20168 yr by The_Hammer