Blown Head Gasket?

Vawter · Mar 4, 2016

I know this subject has been touched more times than I can count, but I was hoping maybe someone could ease my mind. To start off my truck got studded a little over a year and a half ago. Supposedly the heads were checked for flatness at this time. Since then I have many problems with it not starting, all of which started off with a bad hpop a little less than a year ago. I had it replaced by the same shop that did my heads, which was supposed to be a reputable shop. Ever since then I have had a random no start problem. Well long story short I finally found someone who could diagnose the problem after trying multiple dealers, and thanks to Struckman Ford I think we finally got that fixed. The reason I was having this problem was because the shop who put the hpop in did some things wrong.

So now this has me concerned for my head gaskets needles to say. I have noticed some with residue left over from puking around the degas cap, which I think needs to be replaced anyways because it never has been and it puked several times before the egt ****** and studs. I have a new one on the way now. I have been noticing that around my oil filter housing there seems to be some coolant also. All of this has me very concerned needless to say. My real question is how likely is it to have blown gaskets and your ECT never get about 180? I am at 175-177 cruising most of the time and when I get on it it will maybe rise to 180 but I have not seen it get any higher than that. EOT is typically right at 190-195. I know this is in the upper limits of being ok and my oil cooler maybe going soon which I am ok with. Head gaskets not so much. Does this sound like its my head gaskets or a coolant leak somewhere else?

kwelch08 · Mar 4, 2016

Change the cap. If it still pukes hook a gauge up to the 3/8 return hose going from the motor to Degas bottle. Drive the truck with the gauge ran to where you can see it get on it a bit if it gets above 18psi more than likely it's headgaskets. I just went through the exact same thing.

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Vawter · Mar 4, 2016

Thanks for the reply, I will try this when I get the new cap. I take it I can just hook it up temporarily to my boost gauge?

jake74 · Mar 4, 2016

Negative on hooking to your boost gauge. You need to buy something like a 0-30 psi gauge to use for this test.

6.0 Tech · Mar 4, 2016

I use a cooling system pressure tester gauge on a block for testing this.

Vawter · Mar 5, 2016

Ok I am sure I can rig something up. If I do have a leak somewhere else in the cooling system would my pressure be lower than normal? I took it out last night and got on it pretty good and there was no puking from the degas bottle, but there was more coolant on top of my engine. I am staring to think it might be the EGR ****** leaking. Or atleast I am hoping that's what it is.

6.0 Tech · Mar 6, 2016

On top of the engine could be deelete hose, oil cooler coolant passage cover gasket, or big donut o ring on athe intake. If you have a leak, the cooling system will not hold pressure to run the test.

kwelch08 · Mar 6, 2016

Sorry was half asleep when I wrote that, and should've explained what gauge needed to be used better.

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Vawter · Mar 6, 2016

Ok, thanks for all the help guys. Once I get my new cap Monday, I have a pretty good idea what to test and look for now.

Vawter · Mar 7, 2016

It's blown. Haven't hooked a gauge to it yet but I can see a visibly wet line around where each head mounts to the block on the underside so I would say it's safe to say. I am located about an hour south of Indianapolis, does anyone know of reputable shop that isn't to terribly far from me? I would like to take it to Matt at cutting edge from all the good things I have read, and his prices are pretty reasonable, but it's 10 hours away and I have no idea how I would get it there.

sootie · Mar 8, 2016

Vawter said:
It's blown. Haven't hooked a gauge to it yet but I can see a visibly wet line around where each head mounts to the block on the underside so I would say it's safe to say. I am located about an hour south of Indianapolis, does anyone know of reputable shop that isn't to terribly far from me? I would like to take it to Matt at cutting edge from all the good things I have read, and his prices are pretty reasonable, but it's 10 hours away and I have no idea how I would get it there.

take it to Morgan @ Midwest Diesel. He does awesome work and will treat you right. He is located in Athens IL which should be only about a 4 hour drive for you.

Vawter · Mar 8, 2016

Well after calling a few places today and being quoted 5-6k by everyone I talked to, I think I am just going to buy a cheap lift and pull the cab off and do it myself. I am fortunate enough to have the space to be able to do it, just a little nervous about it. I think since I can drive our new shop truck (6.4) in the meantime I can take my time and make sure it gets done right. Then atleast after I have the lift if I ever want to do more to the truck.

Codydiesel · Mar 8, 2016

If it were me I would just pull the engine out the front. But if your dead set on getting a lift go for it. It takes no time though to pull the engine and while its out you can seal it to make sure it's good for many years go come.

mcdaniel1991 · Mar 9, 2016

I did mine by lifting the cab, its pretty easy to get the cab off. I have the whole workshop manual on the 6.0 if you would like me to email it to you. It helped me alot. I also did lifters, rockers, pushrods and a new rear main seal while I had the cab off.

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Vawter · Mar 9, 2016

Well I race dirt modifieds and my dad has late models so between the two of us we would get plenty of use out of the lift around the race shop, and plus some of the coating on my frame has peeled off from an old power steering leak that was leaking on the frame rail so I would like to atleast get something on the frame so come winter it's not bare metal. Might end up just taking the bed off too and doing the whole thing and the underside of the cab and bed, but we will see how I feel once it comes time to get started.

mcdaniel1991 · Mar 9, 2016

Just emailed you a ton of info OP.

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Vawter · Mar 14, 2016

Thank you I got them, that is a huge help! Starting to get parts ordered so I can get started. The truck never had a coolant filter on it, and I just received the one I ordered. Does anyone think it would be a bad idea to try and flush the coolant with bad headgaskets? I don't want to hurt the truck driving it, but I am going to install a new oil cooler in the process and would like to flush out what I can before that. Thought about putting the coolant filter on and then flushing it with distilled water multiple times before pulling the cab.

mcdaniel1991 · Mar 14, 2016

No but might as well wait, you have to drain the coolant anyway when you do the studs.

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webb06 · Mar 14, 2016

Vawter said:
Thank you I got them, that is a huge help! Starting to get parts ordered so I can get started. The truck never had a coolant filter on it, and I just received the one I ordered. Does anyone think it would be a bad idea to try and flush the coolant with bad headgaskets? I don't want to hurt the truck driving it, but I am going to install a new oil cooler in the process and would like to flush out what I can before that. Thought about putting the coolant filter on and then flushing it with distilled water multiple times before pulling the cab.

I would

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