Hi everyone. I am new to this forum and am working on my first diesel.

I am working on an 88 7.3 in an E-350 chassis which is a trash truck that I am trying to get running for my son's trash company. While replacing the injectors and glow plugs, I broke a pick while attempting to extract the injector washers and the broken piece went into the cylinder. Had thought about removing the heads anyway since it seemed to be getting air in the cooling system. Thought that the pulsating coolant with the radiator cap off might have just been caused by the cylinders expanding and contracting. Didn't seem to be a lot of air, just coolant pulsating so was going to do the injectors and glow plugs first and see how it went. But the broken pick in the cylinder made the choice to remove the heads for me.

I got the head off the side with the broken pick off (no small feat in that *!!!!## van chassis) and took it in to get magnafluxed in case a cracked head was causing the coolant issue. Magnafluxing showed two cracks, one in each of the two center combustion chambers starting in the intake port and running up through the valve seat of the intake valve. Had a spare motor that my son had recently purchased, so took the head off of it and took it in to be magnafluxed just to be safe. This head also showed two cracks in almost the exact same place as the other head.

Anyone know if this is a common problem with thes engines, or is just my usual luck?

Have attached a picture of the second head. Don't know if yo will be able to see the cracks.

Sorry for the lengthy post.

Jon