lost head gasket!!!!

S

steveo24

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Joined
Apr 21, 2009
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Ok, lost a big portion of my head gasket towards the back of my head the other day on my way to work. I am looking for some advice on what to do now. I have heard of fire-ringing, pretty expensive, but the best way to go?? Does the block need to be grooved as well as the head for fire ringing? I have also heard of studding with marine gaskets, studding with o-rings, etc etc. Just looking for some advice on what direction to turn , and who has had luck with what. I don't know if I want to spend the money on fire ringing it? Thanks in advance
 
If it has a lot of miles i would at the very least have it sent to be magnafluxed i sent mine to get decked and o-ringed and turned out to be cracked pretty bad in a few place's no ammount of o-ringing or fire ringing would fix that.
 
Devan Manis said:
If it has a lot of miles i would at the very least have it sent to be magnafluxed i sent mine to get decked and o-ringed and turned out to be cracked pretty bad in a few place's no ammount of o-ringing or fire ringing would fix that.
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Thanks for the reply,

Planning to have the head fluxed, decked for sure, just not sure on how to make sure this doesn't happen again. I just daily drive, pull loads with the truck, it's not a race truck, or a puller.
 
if you get it decked, depending on how much boost you run you might get away with a stock gasket and some dead studs, i know of a few trucks with studs and a stock gasket that run 40-50psi depending on the truck.
 
Have your head decked, o rings, studs, and if you have the money, P&P

This is what I did. Except I didnt have the money for a P&P job. I'm also running a stock thickness head gasket.
 
Anyone know where to get the o-rings, if I decide to go that route? ALso, what type of gasket did you use?? I was looking at a Cometic one, any positives or negatives on them?
 
cumminstrokethi said:
Have your head decked, o rings, studs, and if you have the money, P&P

This is what I did. Except I didnt have the money for a P&P job. I'm also running a stock thickness head gasket.
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DO the o-rings come with the gasket? Or is this something the machine shop may supply? ALso, has anyone used a COmetic gasket, and if so, any luck with it?
 
The machine shop will cut the grooves into your head and install the o-rings for anywhere from $300 to $500. I would recommend bringing it to Woodruff Diesel in New Vienna, OH. We have a lot of local trucks running his orings without problems. But any reputable machine shop should be ok, its just really important that the grooves are cut consistently!

Lavon
 
Anyone know how much you can safely mill off of a head before having to use a thicker head gasket??
 
steveo24 said:
Anyone know how much you can safely mill off of a head before having to use a thicker head gasket??
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my machine shop guy told me that when you mill the head you have to redo the valves i forgot what he called it, but you had to redo it to make sure the valve protrusion is good.
 
I think when tim did mine he said the decked it .007ths and put a .020 over gasket in. I think 7 thousandths ened to end and 3 thousandths side to side is max before it has to be decked but I could definetley be wrong.
 
ALright, so the machine shop had to take .010 thousandths of the deck to get it flat. Anyone know if the valve protrution will be to great now? Am I going to need to run a bigger head gasket?
 
figured I'd let everyone know that it all worked out great with .010 thousandths milled off of the deck. Runs good. :rockwoot:
 
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