I am not sure if it is a blown head gasket or not. So what are the symptoms of a blown head gasket?

The truck has had a small coolant leak building up around injector one (and still does) for about the past 2 months. Also two months ago I threw the belt that is about the time I noticed the small build up begin. On Sunday evening I noticed some coolant in a friends drive way. I then drove the truck home 60 miles. Thre is no white smoke and the power is the same. Now the day before I noticed the coolant in the driveway I had topped off the coolant and then parked the truck at his house for the day. It only seems to leak bad until the radiator is about 3/4 full. So I am guessing I will pressure test it next, but does this sound like a possible blown head gasket? Wouldn't I notice a loss in power if so? Any suggestions would be great.

 

You need to pressure test the sys first. If you have a external leak, try to find out where it is from. And go from there

 

A tiny coolant leak from the head gasket near the thermostat housing is a very common occurance on our 12 valves. I was losing about a pint every 3000 miles. A Cummins mech told me to try to ignore it because it wasn't hurting anything, but I changed the head gasket anyway because it was bugging me. That was at about 195k. I took the opportunity to install 60 lb valve springs because I was planning on installing a GSK. I also changed the valve guide seals since they came with the kit. Just as the mech said, there was no coolant entering the engine. FWIW, I put about 15k on it pulling trailers between talking to the Cummins mech and doing the change.

 

If, with the engine fully warmed up, and just idling off running at highway speeds with a load for a duration of time, you have bubbles all over in your coolant overflow bottle, you really should investigate for a blown head gasket. Pressure testing will tell you this as well.

I would highly suggest having an oil analysis done on a sample, and checking for coolant & fuel dilution.

 

It is clear now that it is leaking coolant from the gasket, you can even see some of the gasket popped out the side now. I had to drive it 60 miles to get it to my tech's house tonight and he definately confirmed, almost ran out of coolant on the drive, it was no fun. So he will be throwing a new on tomorrow, still considering having it o ringed, ported and studed while it is off, but not sure yet.

Thanks for the input guys,