Happen to be walking by the truck parked in the shop and noticed a small puddle of green coolant. It where its at which is strange. Back at the bellhousing. I know the only freeze plug back there is the block freeze plug but as far as I can see right now there is no coolant coming from that freeze plug but I fear the worst.... Possible head gasket. 

8 minutes ago, Silverdodge said:

Studs and a new head will fix it right up maybe o rings

 

Your pockets must be deeper than mine. I've got hard enough time trying to scrape up $1,000 just to have the head serviced. I still not ordered a gasket set. Then I've got to order head bolts at least. I've got to get moving along with this project I need this truck for winter time for sure. 

I bet if you get the head rebuilt and buy the $300 head set you'll be good for at least another 350k miles on the top end. I seriously doubt head bolts will have corrosion or be stretched past spec so I would re-use head bolts. Cummins head bolts are not torque to yield and are re-usable if their free length does not exceed spec. I've built quite a few 6BT and ISB engines and have yet to find a head bolt that couldn't be re-used.

16 hours ago, 015point9 said:

?Were did you buy that thing you have that you always seem to break down at home?

He falls for every Robo caller thats got a female voice and bought the home break down package.

I wish I could find a material harder then arp studs but I have not been able to better locate better so I can not make better but u can get cap studs which are in between arps and stock for less then half

Like @04Mach1 mentioned, just reuse stock head bolts and when you have money later or feel the need for studs you can always do it then.

21 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Action Dodge - Ontario, OR 

Purchase Date: October 26, 2002 - Birthday present!

 

Actually, I'm very aware of the condition of the truck doing weekly look overs for fluid leaks and damaged parts. Like my list as it stands right now is head gasket, head rebuilt (valve seals), Power Steering reservoir seal, and the rear sway bar links. I might not post every problem I have but I'm aware of everything. 

i think i still have my swaybar links...   i think they are still good. want them?

I'll most likely replace mine with new one being the number of miles I put down per year. I really don't want to do this job twice in the same year.

mike when you get the new headgasket, spray a nice coating of this on it.  when i rebuilt mine i sprayed it good and it has held up fine.

 

1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

I'll most likely replace mine with new one being the number of miles I put down per year. I really don't want to do this job twice in the same year.

I doubt you would have to do the job twice even re-using head bolts. You would see another 15 years and 350k miles of use before the job would be needed again assuming you clean the deck of the block and the head is true. Your truck is still low mileage and lightly used compared to many I've worked on. I've routinely see many small Cummins 4BT, 6BT, and ISB engines with more than 700k miles in medium duty trucks with minimal repairs still going strong.

 

At the end of the day it's your truck though so if you got the dough to spend and feel more comfortable with it having new head bolts then by all means get the new head bolts. Check to make sure all of the exhaust manifold bolts will come out easy. You might need new exhaust manifold bolts if they are rusted like normal and hopefully your exhaust manifold didn't shrink like some do.

Feeling bad for you Mike. It sucks having expensive little surprises like that. Hope you get everything ship shape soon! 

On ‎9‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 11:04 AM, Mopar1973Man said:

I'm looking at a worse case scenario of $1,000 for just the head work doing everything. 

What's every thing?   Check for straight, hot tank, resurface, valve job and guides.  Can you get by with just check for straight and if not straight just the resurface?   

3 minutes ago, IBMobile said:

What's every thing?   Check for straight, hot tank, resurface, valve job and guides.  Can you get by with just check for straight and if not straight just the resurface?   

when i rebuilt mine i didnt do any head/valve work, just had the shop check for flatness and was done. slapped back on and works fine

19 minutes ago, CUMMINSDIESELPWR said:

when i rebuilt mine i didnt do any head/valve work, just had the shop check for flatness and was done. slapped back on and works fine

How many miles on it?

At minimum I would do valve stem seals, valve seats cut, valves ground, and head resurfaced.

 

If guides are worn then they should also be replaced to help with oil burning. I'd say $1000 for a complete head rebuild is a good price depending on what the machine shop is quoting for the work they will perform. A complete genuine Cummins reman head will be $1500-$1600 in comparison.

2 hours ago, dripley said:

How many miles on it?

i rebuilt the engine @ 207,000miles   ive got about 15-20,000 since rebuild. all i did to the head were new stem seals. the shop did test to make sure valves seated good with a pressure test and the head had zero issues needing addressed so i just tossed it back on and bolted down with new cummins head bolts w stock torque (habit of not reusing old ones).  they may have taken a thousand off the deck just to clean that up if that but the engine was in top shape (beside the #6 bore) had them work all the bores .20 over

2 hours ago, 04Mach1 said:

At minimum I would do valve stem seals, valve seats cut, valves ground, and head resurfaced.

 

If guides are worn then they should also be replaced to help with oil burning. I'd say $1000 for a complete head rebuild is a good price depending on what the machine shop is quoting for the work they will perform. A complete genuine Cummins reman head will be $1500-$1600 in comparison.

i barely had enough to get the engine rebuilt, adding the $1000 for headwork wasnt feasable. im basically stock though so not worried

Edited September 12, 20186 yr by CUMMINSDIESELPWR

10 hours ago, IBMobile said:

What's every thing?   Check for straight, hot tank, resurface, valve job and guides.  Can you get by with just check for straight and if not straight just the resurface?   

 

That worse case scenario. Valves, guides, seal, check for true, etc.  Already got leaking valve seal now. Guides? Won't know till he can look at it. My first problem is getting the head off and letting a shop look it over. The shop I'm dealing with deals with mostly Cummins engines. 

18 hours ago, 04Mach1 said:

At minimum I would do valve stem seals, valve seats cut, valves ground, and head resurfaced.

 

If guides are worn then they should also be replaced to help with oil burning. I'd say $1000 for a complete head rebuild is a good price depending on what the machine shop is quoting for the work they will perform. A complete genuine Cummins reman head will be $1500-$1600 in comparison.

I paid$1000 to have everything you listed done on mine but they told me I was getting a good deal since me and them went back in time, they did 3 angle valve job not sure if it's standard or because it's more of a race shop. I should have spent another 80 and had the guides machines to accept top hat seals instead of using ford ones. The only thing instead of a full guide they put in brass inserts, they said they've done a lot of them like that then never had a problem so I guess time will tell. Plus I did have them mag it and pressure-test it. 

I thought genuine Cummins heads for that price were bear.

5 hours ago, Dieselfuture said:

I paid$1000 to have everything you listed done on mine but they told me I was getting a good deal since me and them went back in time, they did 3 angle valve job not sure if it's standard or because it's more of a race shop. I should have spent another 80 and had the guides machines to accept top hat seals instead of using ford ones. The only thing instead of a full guide they put in brass inserts, they said they've done a lot of them like that then never had a problem so I guess time will tell. Plus I did have them mag it and pressure-test it. 

I thought genuine Cummins heads for that price were bear.

The 07 5.9 I posted on here a while back got a genuine Cummins reman head. Complete with valves it was just under $1600 with an additional $900 refundable core charge. The first gen ISB should be around the same price.

 

You can see part of the reman head in the pic.

 

 

I built a late VP ISC also a while back and the genuine Cummins reman head I put on that one was right around $2100 with an additional $1100 refundable core charge.

 

About the only thing that will disqualify a head from core credit is fire deck damage.

Head removal is simple and took a friend and me 3 hours to get the head removed. I will admit it a very heavy piece of cast iron either have two able bodies to lift the head or use an engine hoist. We team lifted the head and got it off.

 

 

 

 

More...

 

Edited September 16, 20186 yr by Mopar1973Man

My, my. Which one of you remebered to take return line off the head? Out of site out of mind.