Possible head gasket leak

[Dieselfuture]

This is weird how some engines with low miles have a lot of wear and others with high miles have no wear at all. Wonder if some shops know what to look for, I would hope yes. 

I want to say 16 of my guides were oval too, I had them put in all 24. They used some brass ones, said they use them a lot with good luck, hope they are right. 

 

You could see what a bear head cost, but then it may still require machine work. Replacing guides is cheaper if you can find a good shop near by. 

I would personally have them machine it for top hat style seals also, so you'll never have to worry about seals blowing off. I got quoted $80 for that but they never mentioned it in the beginning before I knew it was available, so I had to make some out of tinfoil and used genuine chinese condoms, lol just kidding, I used some ford seals from a v6 what a pain in the rear. They still work but I'd rather spend 80 at the shop if I would have known. 

[Mopar1973Man]

I had 18 valve guides replaced. You need to do the valve guide other than that the movement of the valves will destroy the new seals. 

[Manimalmother]

So my mechanic uncle found another local shop that says they can do the guides.  I guess best practice is just to replace all 24 guides at this point.  

[dripley]

Makes me wonder about mine. The shop said they were fine and apparently I am not burning oil or see any blue smoke that is. Its 25k miles since replacement. I am long overdo of pulling the valve cover and looking.

[Manimalmother]

I wasn't burning any oil either.  Weird.

[Mopar1973Man]

I was burning oil enough that it would leave a oily residue on the tailgate on the passenger side. Fog out a parking lot on start up. Smells of rich burnt engine oil. About 1 quart every 7 to 9k miles. 

[Dieselfuture]

Mine never used any oil ether and never had problems with seals blowing off, but after rebuilt seals blew off the guides and got smashed by retainers and then it was an oil train on start ups. 

[Manimalmother]

Picked up the head from the first machine shop today and got it to the second one.  First shop had cleaned the head, ground the valves, and started the seats when the problem with the guides was found.  He showed it to me and it was obvious that they needed replaced.  He charged me $120 for work performed so far.

 

Second shop is going to replace all 24 guides, machine the head for tophat seals, finish the seats, deck the head and reassemble.  $700 plus cost of guides and seals.

 

All told I'm going to be right at $1700 into this job if I don't have to buy anything else.  Fingers crossed.

[Dieselfuture]

19 minutes ago, Manimalmother said:

machine the head for tophat seals

I'm jealous

[Manimalmother]

so the new shop just called and said the head is full of cracks and can't be repaired.  awesome.  apparently first shop didn't magnaflux it.

[Dieselfuture]

Depends where the cracks are a lot of guys still use the head. Need to pressure test it and see if any cracks are anywhere important. Also some crooked shops like to tell you your head is bad and give you somebody else's head back and keep your good one. I always stamp my heads, cranks, and blocks in places where no one else knows somewhere inconspicuous, so only I know where to look for it. This way they can't give you someone else's parts.

[Manimalmother]

Just now, Dieselfuture said:

Depends where the cracks are a lot of guys still use the head. Need to pressure test it and see if any cracks are anywhere important. Also some crooked shops like to tell you your head is bad and give you somebody else's head back and keep your good one. I always stamp my heads, cranks, and blocks in places where no one else knows somewhere inconspicuous, so only I know where to look for it. This way they can't give you someone else's parts.

 

I'm going to pick it up lunchtime tomorrow.  I know D&J performance says that some cracks are acceptable and want pictures before they accept it as a core.  Will know more tomorrow.

[dripley]

8 minutes ago, Manimalmother said:

 

I'm going to pick it up lunchtime tomorrow.  I know D&J performance says that some cracks are acceptable and want pictures before they accept it as a core.  Will know more tomorrow.

Good luck. Be good to know where this goes. The shop that did mine told me upfront there was a good chance it was cracked from their experience, but it all turned out good for me.

Edited February 10, 2020 by dripley

[Manimalmother]

Picked up the head today.  Cracks in every exhaust seat and some of the intake seats.

 

Found a reman Cummins head from a shop in Ohio. Magnafluxed, valve job, decked, and o-ringed for $1200 to my loading dock.  Pulled the trigger this morning.

 

Also bought everything to delete my wife's 6.7 today.

 

It was an expensive day.

[Dieselfuture]

1 hour ago, Manimalmother said:

Also bought everything to delete my wife's 6.7 today.

Wish my wife would be a cool

[Manimalmother]

So just for grins I decided to further inspect my head.  I don't have mag particle equipment here but I do have dye penetrant we use for inspecting weld.  I can only find 2 cracks with the dye pen, and they are small.  Cannot visually locate any others.  I'm thinking this head is repairable.

[Manimalmother]

So I still don't have a head.  It's been a hell of a time.  This may be long winded but I have to type it out to fully understand it.

 

Tuesday, February 11th I purchased the head from the shop in Ohio.  Said it would take three days to ship out.

 

Monday February 17th "Head ships" notice the quotation marks.

 

Friday February 21st Head has still not arrived.  Seller states he can track it to Virginia and it disappears.  Seller states trucking company can't find it.

 

Monday, February  24th Seller states he is working on another head and will overnight it to me the next day for delivery Wednesday.

 

Wednesday February 26th No head. 

 

Thursday February 27th Seller states that head is tracked to South Carolina and I can pick up at freight terminal if needed.  Will let me know Friday morning where it is for pickup.

 

Friday February 28th.  Got call from seller this morning that the head was located in Kentucky and he was driving from Ohio to get it.

 

A few minutes ago he calls me and says that two of the valves are damaged and have to be replaced and he is working on that now.  He says that he is refunding half my money now and is going to meet me halfway tomorrow for me to get the head.

 

 

 

I doubt that it's actually going to happen.  I've given this dude the benefit of the doubt for over two weeks now.  I understand that stuff happens but a lot of this seems far fetched for me.  If it's some other excuse tomorrow I'm going to file a claim with Square, which is how I paid him.

 

Ready to have my truck back.

 

[dripley]

As someone who receives a lot of job related shipments I have seen this occasionally. Some I have received look like they road on a camel for a month. Some in such shape I have to refuse them. I dont know your guy from Adam so who knows. One shipment I could see, two gets a bit fishy so I understand your mistrust. 

 

Good luck.

[Manimalmother]

I finally got the head yesterday.  I had to drive 11.5 hours round trip to meet him to pick it up.  

 

Problems:

 

The head wasn't o-ringed

 

The hosebarb for the heater hose was broken off in the block.

 

The forward dowel pin had been left in the head when he decked it, so it was cut flush with the surface.

 

It was FULL of metal from being shotblasted.

 

He offered to give me half my money back which I accepted.

 

Good things:

 

The valve seats look nice.

 

It has tophat valve seals.

 

It generally appears that the work he did perform is good.

 

Now on to getting it ready to install.

 

The first thing I did was remove the freeze plugs from the top of the head.  I tapped all 11 holes for M24 plugs.  I was extremely surprised at how easy the freeze plugs were to remove.

 

Next, I removed the 6 3/8" freeze plugs from near the exhaust ports.  These had been problematic on my first head.

 

To remove I drilled a 1/8" hole in the center of each.  I then used a 1" long self tapping sheet metal screw with a washer on it.  I screwed this into the plug until the washer was against the block, then continued turning and the screw pulled the freeze plug from the head.

 

I tapped these 1/8 NPT and installed brass pipe plugs.

 

I used a cold chisel and hammer to split the fitting that was broken in the head.  Took about an hour to get out. Was a PITA.

 

I used a punch from the top side of the head to catch the lip of the dowel and drive it out.  Easy peasy.

 

I then chased the threads for the exhaust manifold bolts to remove debris and paint.  These are M-10x1.50.  

 

 

 

 

[dripley]

i feel so inadequate or just lucky now. sucks you had to go thru all of this.