Well i think my head gasket blew, Blowing anti-freeze into resevior and bubbles in radiator. So Is it worth it to o-ring it and head studs while i'm doing it, or not. I'm mild tunned, stock turbo. I know alot of you guys have change these yourself, how bad of a job is it??I want to do it myself, but never done one before. I like to do all of my own work. I would like to just change gasket b/c it cheaper than o-ring and studs, but i don't want it to go out again in 70K miles. Thanks Chris

 

Man i'm sorry to hear that.
We just finished doing the exact same job at vocational school the other day. It was on a 97 automatic. the truck had a #100 plate and 370 injectors with the stock turbo. It had 140,000 miles on it. The owner had opted to have the head studded and o-ringed, because he had future upgrades planned. The job wasn't to bad with the instructer helping us along the way, but if you have never done this before I don't know if I would try it by myself, but if you have someone that can help you and you have all of the nesecarry tools it wouldn't be to bad. (IMO)

 

I'm moderately BOMBed, too. I took out the head gasket smoking out a deserving driver. Combination of boost and advanced timing.

I opted to have a local shop do it for me. I can do these things myself, but without a dedicated shop and equipment it is a tough job.
I went with studs and 60 lb valve springs. Mike talked me out of o-rings as not required at my moderate levels. It would have been a lengthy job to do it myself. The head was out by 0.004" and half the exhaust valve guides were bad. Plus the new style stem seals require a little machining on the head. This was all done in house.

I recommend studs and valve springs. Studs are re-useable if you decide to go back in and o-ring, port, or fire ring. Valve springs are there for the GSK.

 

It's not too bad a job for the first timer. It's basically a bolt off, bolt on type job. If you plan on keeping it stock, then yes just replace the gasket. If you want more than stock, and I'm sure you do, depending on where you are in Indiana, take the head to Scheid's or Haisley's and have it fire-ringed. Then use 12mm studs and not reuse the head bolts.

Also I'd make sure you have a HG failure before tearing into it. Whatever you do, use Cummins parts only.

 

Fire rings is a bit more involved as it requires matching cuts in the head and deck.

 

You can have the head or the block or both machined (fire-ringed). If it were me, I'd have both surfaces machined. Which is what I'm having done now. I pulled all the parts myself, down to bare block. Gonna tow the truck to Scheid's next week for fire ringing of both the block and head. This saves a bunch of money on head R&R.

 

Don't forget that you can just put the studs in with a new HG (marine HG?) and hold more boost than just replacing the HG. May be an option for you if you don't plan on going to extreme with the truck.

 

I would not worry, if you are going to blow the head its going to be all the way or not . or you could be like me Fass 90 and 150 injectors and i blew in 15 min. it either all or all the way I know i ve done it twice

 

Anytime that you are replacing the HG I would be sure and have the head resurfaced.... As for the studs and O-rings, it really depends on your bombing level. What have you done to your truck? Where is the timing set? Another item to remeber is on a mildly bombed truck most HG's are blown by not allowing the engine to completely warm up before pushing it.

Using a good HG and studs is good for a truck with light timing and mild fuel. Turn it up much and look out as it just won't hold. Personally I like to stud and O-ring and bombed truck because it just improves reliability.

Doug

 

It has injectors, cam plate, timming 17*, delivery valves, 4K GSK. I'm still checking to make for sure it HG, going to change thermostate this week. The guy that does most of my major work is a vender for EEP, He's done a few o-ring and head studs, but he done them up at EEP, He's going to buy the tooling so he can do it down here in IN. Looks like i might be a ginni pig for him!!!

He also said he's never heard of one going out, and not showing major sign, oil in water, water in oil, leaking out side of block. My truck will get up to 220f before the thermostat opens sometimes, he said it not suppost to get that hot!!!!

 

Better safe than sorry id say

if you gotta remove the head now, may as well get all the goodies in there while ur at it. Why do it again?

Tx

 

SmokenRam:

The members are all giving you some good advice. I agree 100% with what Doug is (Jetpilot) is trying to tell you on the cylinder head itself, that being, have that head checked front to back and side to side for warpage. As I recall, Cummins says no more than 2 thousandths side to side and no more than 5thousandths front to back.

When Scheid did the rebuild on my 1996 Dodge CTD, my 12 valve head was pretty well shot at 218,000 miles. FWIW, it was over tolerance both front to back and side to side. Also,.....the 12 valve heads are notorious for having cracked valve seats. Every one of mine was cracked, so be sure and check for that too!

Hope this has helped you some.

-------
John_P

 

It isn't that hard to pull the head yourself. Then take it into a shop and have it checked out. I would say at least go with studs, and an o ring if you have the $ laying around. It's not a bad job, but it's not one you want to do twice if you don't have to! I've never ripped a head off of anything, and I dove into mine. No problems aside from forgetting to unplug the coolant sensor in the back of the head. Just make sure you've got a strong buddy or a cherry picker because that baby ain't light!

 

Don't know how much of a job it is, I had Scheid Diesel do studs and fire rings when I had mine out there and I'm glad I did. Boost is in the 45 - 47 range and I don't worry.