SOOT4BRAINS

I need to vent a little ........ antifreeze........ So ever since I rebuilt my getrag, the front bearing retainer and pto covers leaked. I fixed the pto covers by NOT using the gaskets supplied in the kit, just sealer. But the front bearing retainer was a bit more of a chore so I have been putting it off. It has gotten worse, so I decided this weekend that instead of installing my shiny new cab lights, I will yank the trans and fix the leak. I got trans out last night, and had a good friend come over and help me stick it back in this morning. Took a peek at the clutch to see how the new dual disc is breaking in at 5,000 miles, looks great and I have done some hard launches with it. No burn marks, just barely looks broke in. Got done around noon, buddy had to split and I figured while I'm covered in oil and grease, I might as well fix the front crank seal and have all the leaks on this pig fixed. While I'm doing this I see ANOTHER LEAK!!!! The kind you just don't want to see. There is antifreeze leaking from the head gasket just above the oil cooler. My oil level has not gone up, and the temperature in the truck runs fine, the overflow bottle has lost maybe a pint. Not sure how long its been leaking. I spent all my money I had to buy the front crank seal and now I have nothing left to do a head gasket with. How bad will it be to drive it with the leak, assuming its not leaking into the oil? I need it to work so I can buy a head gasket. I am only making 35 psi max, and 90% of my driving is highway and I rarely get on the gas hard as to keep my mileage up. I don't understand why its leaking. I am just over 150k. Could it be a crack some where, or is it usually just the gasket letting go? It is kinda old I guess. What is the bests brand of gasket? Thanks guys

Aaron

wannadiesel

Yep, it's the gasket. As long as it's not losing too much coolant, there's no oil and water mixing, and combustion pressure isn't blowing coolant out the overflow you can drive it without hurting anything.

Use a Cummins gasket. You are a good candidate for the 0.020" over gasket since you have good sized injectors and want to go even bigger. Might even want to stud it while you have it apart.

jimbo486

no way!!! think you can have it done before the dyno day? i may have to drive out there and give you an extra hand since i've done that job before lol guess it would give you the chance to install the PS I/C and the coolertubz

jimbo486

cummins .020 marine gasket P/N: 3283339

93flatbed

Dude that sucks. Sorry to hear it. DON'T try any of the cooling system stop leak things to get by. As said keep an eye on it and keep it going till you have money to fix it.
If you need help I may be of some assistance with know how and tools. PM if needed, I'm only a "few" miles away.
Justin

SOOT4BRAINS

I'd like to find another head and do some mild porting, oring and stud it. I will need it for my future mods and I HATE doing stuff twice. Could I tighten the head bolts near the leak a little? Maybe limp it out till I get some $$$. Its not too major, and its not even wet down to the bottom of the block yet. What is the gains of the 20 over gasket? From what I have read, it increase combustion chamber size and reduces compression a little. What will it do for injector spray pattern? Thanks wanna!

SOOT4BRAINS

It better be done by dyno day! If I have to I'll put it on the rollers and turn the tires with a breaker bar. If I can limp it out till I can afford studs and oring I will. Thanks 93flatbed! I may have a little party over here when I do it. Maybe I'll have some goodies to put on it and not just change the gasket........

jimbo486

you could try a retorque on the head. jump it up to 125ft lbs. new cummins specs are torque plus angle method. 89ft lbs is the final torque plus an additional 90* turn of the bolt.

gains.... the marine gasket is made with stainless steel and can hold up to higher boost pressures. and you're right, increase chamber size will reduce compression. enough to the point that it could be slightly difficult to start sometimes. mine compression increased by maybe .2 at the most. my head was shaved .006" and i used a standard gasket. injector spray pattern can change, unless an injection shop changes them. or basically a custom nozzle. spray angle is probably what you'd be looking for, but i doubt that you'd need to worry much. when the piston is at TDC, the injector tip is actually inside the bowl of the piston. i'm not sure how much of a difference the .020" gasket would make performance wise but hopefully someone with that knowledge/experience can speak up about it.

Riflemanusmc

I've said this before. The .20 HG is not a bandaid for bad surface's of block and head. If your not going to O ring the head a standard HG will do....

jimbo486

^^ i remember that from my project thread . i didn't o-ring my head and the standard gasket is in it now. the new bolts have 125ft lbs at LEAST on them, i think it can hold up to some high pressures. although, it'll be a while before it sees closer to 30. for now, it's doing just fine getting me from point A to point B.

SeanB23

Be sure to thoroughly clean out each and every one of the twenty-something head bolt holes. Fill them with PB blaster, let them sit, then tap them, then clean them again with brake cleaner. They will be chock full of soot.

Dirty bolt hole threads = inconsistent torque.

jimbo486

and make sure the bolt holes are DRY. don't want any fluid keeping you from reaching the proper torque.

SeanB23

When I did this, I resorted to some prime "Redneck Engineering." I took a shop vac, and modified the end of a hose attachment with some duct tape. Basically, all I did was take a two foot length of smaller-diameter hose, 3/8 or 1/2 (can't remember which) and wrap the duct tape around and around the end, increasing the diameter until it fit snugly in the open end of the shop vac hose attachment. Then, I sealed this with some more duct tape.

The end result was a small diameter length of hose that fit neatly down into the head bolt holes, with an enormous amount of suction. Some of the holes towards the rear of the motor were really bad, and required repeated tapping to get them clean.

Hmmm, now that I think about it, what is the size of the Metric tap you use on these ?

wannadiesel

Right, it's a band-aid for too dang much compression for the fuel and timing we're running. No amount of extra thickness or dum-dum will keep a gasket between a bad head and the block, even with stock fuel and timing.

wannadiesel

Might want to restate that, the bolts should have motor oil (OK) or assembly lube (better) applied for lubrication to ensure that the torque applied gives enough clamping force. What you don't want is a big puddle of oil or coolant in the bolt hole basically hydro-locking the bolt. That's what's meant by dry, not clean and oil-free threads.