Headgasket job underway

[madman1234509]

Well im sure a few of you guys have noticed me posting a bit about different things including cracking heads, head gaskets/studs and cams. Finally dropped my truck off this morning to have it start getting torn into, im pretty excited and nervous at the same time. Im starting this thread to show some progress and at the end hopefully in a new thread let you know what I think and possibly get some dyno numbers with the cam in. ( Also HOPEFULLY to give guys with black trucks some optimism about their heads cracking ) Heres whats being done...

Truck has 97xxx now, tuned since 81xxx. Began to puke September with 275 tune loaded, turned down to 250 with no problems unless I beat on it and bp got high

ARP studs
Heads fluxed and surfaced, hopefully not replaced
Head gaskets, all oem ford stuff replaced
Ported fuel rails
Custom 4" dp
Custom egr delete with 50mm jgs wastegate
Custom CAC pipe
Custom intake elbow
RCD cam and valve springs

I think thats it. Depending on how the heads and timing cover look I might pick up a few more odds and ends. Was thinking push rods, BOV, or traction bars if I have a little extra $$.

 

[Smokin_Joe]

It's amazing how many blown HG's while running the 275. Good luck with the build.

 

[madman1234509]

I know Ive heard that before and it is odd. It was the 275 that was before the early lock tunes came out. Bought the programmer in March 2011. Cracked the lower the EGR cooler by end of April. Routed a hose from the lower egr cooler coolant port to the top port to jerry rig it till I had time to get a project underway when I got out of school in December. And like I said truck finally started to puke in September.

 

[White_monster]

Traction bars if you can bud. Your trans will love you for it too.

 

[Smokin_Joe]

The 275 tune blew my HG's a few years back.

I'm interested to see what that cam does for you. Do you have any idea what to expect with that cam?

 

[madman1234509]

I knowwwww. Its definitely my next mod before I do a low pressure fuel system. Im probably going to by a set of pro comps and possibly reinforce them a bit and get them custom mounted, kind of like for pmf or ouo, cant remember which one, welds the bracket on the axle. I dont need anything crazy for what I do. I might get on a dyno or drag race once or twice just to see how I compare to others

 

[Jeff@Spartan]

Can't wait to see how you like the RCD cam! Good luck with everything throughout the build.

 

[madman1234509]

I have no clue on stock turbos and stock fuel with the cam, there arent many people doing cams with such a basic truck. Jared at RCD said they made close to 700hp and something like 1500ftlbs? but they had a modified stock turbo. Ill try to get stock fuel and turbo numbers so people can see how it looks.

The guy who is doing the work said he talked to a ford tech today who said to check and replace lifters and replace crank bearings if im doing the cam? Anyone have any input. He told him lifters are known to break and send metal into the oil pump. I figured just checking them would be sufficient.

 

[Smokin_Joe]

Just buy some 4'' sch 80 pipe and threaded rods to build your own if you can. I always wanted to re build my 4 link and bars out of T304.

 

[madman1234509]

The guy can definitely make me whatever I want. I just like the dual bar design, it doesnt look like a full blown ladder bar but isnt just a plain single bar. I figured itd be easier for the both of us just to grab the bars and have him custom mount them. Ill see what happens. He did a custom 8 inch lift on my old bosses 4 door 2008 cummins, hes made the traction bars for that and its amazing.

 

[madman1234509]

Well the heads are off. They are being sent out to be machined and fluxed. The guy doing the work said he took a good look at it and couldnt see any obvious cracks like the pictures online. ( good news for us guys with black trucks! . ) He did say they were pretty warped, but nothing that a surfacing can't fix. He also said I will probably need a valve job due to pitting of the exhaust valves. He's going to look over the lifters and start working on pulling the cam today.

 

[UpstateDieselGuy]

Good Luck! I would love to stop by and check out the progress if possible. Give me a shout.

Chris

 

[madman1234509]

Few more quick pictures. Ordering a bunch more random seals and gaskets in the morning.

Has anyone on here besides RCD pulled the rear ring off the back of the motor and taken the cam out that way? Any problems after? The guy doing the work asked me if Ive read about any problems people have had on here from doing it like that. But obv there arent too many people with cams, or basic trucks with cams. A ford tech asked about the project when he was ordering stuff for me and told him never to do that. So hes going to call river city in the morning to talk to them some more. Im sure he can pick their brains way more than I can. Hes just worried about it being off balance and causing vibration or a couple thousand miles down the road killing bearings because its off balance. So after he talked to them I think we will decide the route he will go to pull the cam. He doesnt care either way, obviously not having to pull the crank saves some time and effort but thats not the important thing at this point.

 

[madman1234509]

Heads were fluxed, ended up being cracked.... New heads should be here friday or monday

 

[White_monster]

That sucks bud.

 

[madman1234509]

Yea I guess so, but I was expecting it all along. Moral of the story is everyone that has a black truck is f'd. I wouldve had to do a valve job and what not anyway because of the old valves being pitted. Guess its not a huge deal. Back of the water pump looks good so Im happy about that, even after using regular green coolant for the last 10k. The cam is probably out or will be out in the morning.... Trying to get things straightened out with rudys on getting a set of ported rails. Gabe emailed me tonight and said their machines cutting head for doing ported rails broke today, so I guess ill have to see what he says when I call him tomorrow. If they cant get it done then im just going to leave them out, I dont want ported rails to hold up getting it finished for an extra week or two.

 

[madman1234509]

New cam is in, studs are in. New heads came in yesterday which was nice, it only took ford 2 or 3 days to get them to me. They are on and have been torqued down. Basically waiting on my fuel rail situation. Sent them out to rudys, right after I shipped them rudys contacted me and told me their machine for doing the rails broke. So I had to have my shipment diverted back to me, so they wont be back till tuesday. I happened to talk to RCD just after that and they offered to do my rails quick for me if I wanted to send them out. So this week will be a waiting game, hopefully itll be back together next weekend.

 

[UpstateDieselGuy]

Looks Good!

 

[Red_93_L]

So you got brand new heads from ford? What did they cost you, if you don't mind me asking? Also the machine shop thought they were cracked so bad that hardened valve seats couldn't be installed and they could be reliable?

 

[MINK]

So you got brand new heads from ford? What did they cost you, if you don't mind me asking? Also the machine shop thought they were cracked so bad that hardened valve seats couldn't be installed and they could be reliable?

750 a head is what I found for prices when I did mine - I opted to reuse mine with hardened seats though.