So at ~190,000 miles my head gasket blew. Basically a OEM stock 160 pump motor with minor tweaking done to AFC. The usual stuff. Through a series of events this head gasket failure was most likely my own fault..


So I pull the head. I buy heavy duty head bolts. The new felpro gasket (which is also the same as OEM cummins). I port the head. I bump timing to 19*. I back cut all the valves. I port the intake manifold plate and elbow. 150# valve springs. Tork Tek OFV plug. Everything I can think of while its off.

I prep the block and head with 400 grit wet sand paper. Install it. At first I have a bad fuel pump and problems with a clean AFC signal. The OEM tubing had a leak. Figured all that out, and truck drives FANTASTIC.

Drive a bit tonight, go to my friends house.... as I am pulling up, it starts running funky, as if I'm losing fuel pressure. Whatever. Have a beer. Go back out to the truck and it starts up and runs fine. By the time i get home, its like the fuel pump is completely shot. Barely running.

pull in the drive way and it stalls out. Radiator fan is on... its never on...

My coolant is now low, and brown.

Mother Effer... so I must have blown the new head gasket, or the head is warped. The only thing I did not do while the head was off was get it checked/decked.


Unfortunately since this is a constant project car and I always seem to be chasing a problem... I have not bought any gauges for it.... no temp.... no egt. Granted I'm still running stock 160 injectors, but still I feel like a jackass.


Faaack. And I just spent all my money and had no car for 3 weeks while I worked and waited on parts to come in.

 

This is horrible....

Hope you figure it out soon enough and... praying to god for you that it's really not a HG...

 

No gauges!?
Damn. That's a bad piece of luck. So, why exactly did it blow the first time? Relatively low mile/mostly stock 12V's with blown head gaskets aren't something I hear about every day.

 

Putting a head back on without surfacing it is a real gamble. Also sand paper can "dig in" and cause low spots if not used with a flat peice of steel. Hope you get it figured out!
Just saw the problem or possibly part of it.... felpro head gasket. Their known to fail often in this application. I use the everyday for other vehicles but not for the diesels. Do some research on this subject. If it is blown, use a 3m medium plastic rolok for clean up and use a straight edge to determine if the block is ok. I would send the head to a machine shop with a cbn fly cutter to have it surfaced, cleaned and pressure checked.
Edit again : no wonder it blew 19 * of timing on a fresh hg with no rings???????? Ouch!


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I've never heard of sandpaper on deck surfaces I'd go about 16.5 on the timing

 

Ive got a buddy that runs a shop who uses sandpaper on a long straight flat peice of steel. Its worked well for him but its after initial cleaning with a peice of square stock.
I just use roloc and gasket remover.

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Maybe its just me, but I feel like 19* of timing is not a massive issue here... Also, I was only running about 15-20 pounds of boost. It is a straight signal to the waste gate canister, so it opens immediately.


Perhasp you guys are not familiar with wet sand paper. 400 grit is just a little bit more coarse than construction paper...

 

No reason to get defensive. I have seen factory hg trucks blow a gasket after nothing but a timing increase to 17.5*. You used a gasket that is widely known for failure. I dont think the grit of the paper is to much of a concern, maybe a waste of time, and a good chance that you've now got some minor low spots but nothing that would cause a gasket failure. Did you use the correct torque sequence? And you mention boost but no one mentioned drive pressure? While the high boost may aid in a hg failure when high timing is present, cylinder pressure is the real killer.( Ive considered a pressure spike might be visible with a pressure transducer and scope but im not sure what the lack of fuel would do to the picture, would the spike be as high) But i dont think thats even the case, i vote you either scraped the gasket going down and damaged a passage seal or there is another issue.
Have you checked the oil cooler for poops and giggles?
Your the only one who can tell us what failed.

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Not Getting defensive. I know that whatever reason it failed is by an large an oversight and failure on my part.

I did use the proper torque sequence... and I used the 90lbs then 90* method.

As for drive pressure, obviously that is the cause of blow outs, not actual boost pressure, but its still a benchmark to go by.

I dropped the head down as straight as I could have been able to, I dont really believe it was a scraped gasket...


Eitherway, I just fired it up... starts completely normal, and drives completely normal. Like I said, this only happened after driving it for about 45 minutes last night. (which was its first day running)


So obviously its sealing decent enough until warm/hot...


Obviously I need to go get a temp sensor... LoL.


Sigh. I didn't sleep at all last night.

 

Put a temp gauge in. right at 190* at idle, and drops to like... 170* while riding around. Seems to drop temp the harder I drive.


Its been driving decent, but I have noticed it bog down and want to die when I give it hell in the gas. I think I might just try to torque the head bolts down to an even 135 ft/pounds instead of the 90 ft/lbs then 90*