05 duramax headgasket repair
 

has anyone had to have a headgasket replaced? how much did it cost? and if you were able to do it yourself, how hard was it?

Are you sure its headgaskets?

ya

Just checking because I was having problems that everyone diagnosed as head gaskets with my 05, found out that the stant thermostats dont work for this application, installed oem gm thermostats from dealer and it cured the problem

IF you're blowing coolant out of your de-gas bottle and you have replaced your coolant cap($12 at any gm dealer) then yes you have headgasket problems

I've done it on my LBZ, it cost me $670 for grade-c gaskets and stock bolts, and took about 20 hours, but I had expert help, if you know a mechanic buddy or someone who is mechanically inclined I suggest doing it yourself, its a hell of a lot cheaper than a dealer

the choice was simple for me, $670 for the kit and do it myself, or $5000 to take it to a dealer... SCREW THE DEALER!!!!!!!

this is the kit I used > LLY Head Gasket Kit you can select either stock bolts or ARP studs, I wasnt planning on running over 40psi boost so studs didn't seem worth the extra cash

Its a pain in the ass job to do, but its definitely worth it to do yourself, the GM time to do is 32 hours, so even if you do it in 40 hours its still cheaper to do yourself!!!

thanks guys i think i will do it myself .i wish it was the thermostat or the cap but i did all that

i would try the thermostats first and purge the coolant system allot, i would do this first, you are ging to want to change them if you do head gaskets anyway so you should try it and see how it goes, my was spewing antifreeze out of the overflow and now its not so the $97 investment on thermo's was worth it.

if your upper rad hose stays tight over night or after a long period, and your de-gas bottle has so much pressure built up inside that if you try to open the rad cap it practically wants to blow off then its HG's, thats pretty much the only way that you can get that much pressure build up in the system

If you want to you can pressure check each cylinder by removing the Glowplugs, and the coolant temp sensor by the thermostats and attach a pressure sensor of some type to the temperature sensor port, plug off the degas-overflow pipe, turn the engine over to Top Dead Center of each cylinder, and pressurize the cylinder through the glowplug hole, if your not sure you can do that on your own take it to a reputable mechanic that you trust and get them to pressure test them, the common cylinders to lose pressure are the front two on the drivers side and the rear two on the passengers side, it was the front one on the drivers side that was the tattle tale on my truck, I was not a happy camper that day!

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress :c:

it was a pain in the butt, i did mine while the heads were in the truck. oyy :scare2:

I will have to check mine but like i said i put oem thermo's in and i am not pushing antifreeze anymore(yet)