Head w/ small cracks?

C

Clifford

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Nov 2, 2009
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I blew my head gasket for the second time and decided to go with fire rings. Machine shop says the head has a very small crack between the injector hole and exhaust valve on every cylinder. I am only pushing 50 or so psi but I drive hard and it is a DD.

What I am wondering is what you guys think of using this head... some say it's common and will be fine...

Thanks
 
I would find another head if it was mine. I wouldn't want to chance it and have to redo it again if the crack gets worse.
 
Have it pressure tested, I just had the same issue on a 12 valve head and there were superficial cracks in the same areas but there were no leaks through any of them.
 
6.4 F-350 said:
Have it pressure tested, I just had the same issue on a 12 valve head and there were superficial cracks in the same areas but there were no leaks through any of them.
Click to expand...

^ :Cheer: If it doesn't leak and you can't afford a new one.. Use it.
 
Machining it will more than likely take away those superficial cracks. I had hairline cracks in a couple valve seats on my 12v head but a valve job and seat regrind after machining made them disappear after.
 
I've heard this is very common on the 24V heads....not sure about the 12v'ers.
 
I know it's common in the early 12v heads with 9mm injector bores. Luckily for me, mine didn't have any between the bore and intake valve seat.
 

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As long as the head doesn't have hardened seats pressed in that could loosen and drop from a crack, run it.
 
It's common, cummins actually had an acceptable crack for the 12v. We usually run them at our shop without issues depending on how deep and where but I would tend to bet u will be fine.
 
When I had my head done, it had a lot of little hairline cracks around the valve seats. It's pretty typical. If they don't leak, they're not a problem.
 
Run it. We found over 20 small cracks on mine that was off my puller. Ran fine for 2 more seasons with no issues.
 
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