Think I Blew Head Gasket. The plan is to......

paulb said:
Are you sure about that? My 05 has two. What often happens though is that one of the dowels will get pushed up into the head, and people think there is only one. You can take a tap, and pull it back out of the head. I use a little (very little) locktite to hold the dowel in the block.

Paul
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hmmm, lemme see if I can dig up pictures of my head when it was off. Garrett and I never saw the second one, figured it was a 3rd gen thing.
 
I agree

I have never heard of hot torquing - first because heat will allow more stretch in the bolt or stud fastner, and second because the head and block will also be expanded.

So when cold there is less clamping force because everything shrinks back to normal,

never met an overstretched bolt or stud that shrunk back either, and goin 145 lbs on a 125 lbs rated stud is overstretched in my mind

anyone ever put a stretch checker on rather than a torque wrench?

however - there must be a reason everyone is doin hot torques in the diesel world - even if it isnt something we ever do in the gasser world
 
After doing some more thinking I think I may try to just replace each bolt with a stud and run them down to 140 and see if the additional clamping provided by the stud helps out. The leak seems to be very minimal from what i'm gathering. I will keep everyone posted.
 
seeker1056 said:
however - there must be a reason everyone is doin hot torques in the diesel world - even if it isnt something we ever do in the gasser world
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probably because the diesel world is mostly back-woods rednecks who like to hitch their wagon to any theory that comes across the table?

"don't grind your own fuel plate, you'll mess up the pump!"

"drive pressure kills head gaskets"

etc.
 
when using O-rings i think more than one heat cycle is needed to let the head expand/contract a few times and do a little bit of moving to get the ring good and seating in the fire ring, then retorque to make sure it doesnt move any more and the fire ring is compressed.

just sounds good in my mind.
 
getblown5.9 said:
the only reason i can see hot retorques is when using O-rings. and i think more than one heat cycle is needed to let the head expand/contract a few times and do a little bit of moving to get the ring good and seating in the fire ring, then retorque to make sure it doesnt move any more and the fire ring is compressed.

just sounds good in my mind.
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we never use the two together (o-rings and power rings) so i dont know what you are referring to

as far as stuff moving around and putting the motor thru heat cycles what does that have to do with whether you torque hot or stone cold?
 
oh

only fire rings i know of (and cometic calls them power rings for my previous app) are not to be used with a o-ring in the head or deck.

still, why do the retorque hot?

ps - power rings suck - have had better luck with stainless 0-rings above n below a copper gskt

diff app tho - and no water in block
 
Don, when you run wire o-rings that put an extra crush point around the gasket's combustion ring it can take some heat cycles to really pin the **** out of it IMO.

you can put an indexing mark on the nuts, do a full sequence retorque (cold, obviously hehehe) and see if you're back on your same marks. If they require more rotation to net the same torque on the wrench, you've crushed the gasket furthur

you can get away with a lot more with less attention to cylinder head sealing/fastening if you deck a well seasoned block, but most guys out there are messing with a factory cut block... these heads tend to smile up and the blocks tend to frown down, so you're kinda up against a little wall in that aspect.

being a little fanatical about the whole deal can go a long way to keeping everything sealed up
 
Forrest Nearing said:
when you run wire o-rings that puts an extra crush point around the gasket's combustion ring it can take some heat cycles to really pin the **** out of it
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do our stock gskts have a gas filled ring in them?

back in the day we had a rough time o-ringing motors that used head gaskets with a gas filled ring

if you werent really really careful the stainless ring would end up going across the hollow gas filled one and well, it dont take a genius to figure out how well that worked...

what about the cometic gasket?

have not heard about them in some time

they are the schniznit when it comes to gaskets for our bikes

has anyone figured out how to make them work for the cummins?
 
I don't believe it is gas filled. The Cometic gaskets were a bust it seems for anyone looking at a high boost application.
 
agreed, I was stoked at the notion of being able to just slap a gasket on a 2nd gen w/ some studs and holding crazy power/boost, but it is definately not the case.

They don't hold as well as factory gaskets :(

the 3rd gen OEM gaskets are bad ass though
 
Well guys it turns out I may have been a little paranoid. After chatting with Weston, Brett, and a few others I think I may just ride it out and see what happens. Took the truck out to dinner and no bubbles in the reservoir. Hopefully I was just being paranoid but at the same time i'm glad I started this thread as I learned alot. Thanks to all who posted good info in here!
 
Forrest Nearing said:
doesn't make any sense... torque cold... then, when the cylinder head expands with heat it applies more pressure to the gasket.

been working on hot rods and engines all my life... I also used to calibrate torque equipment.

there are cold torque specs, and there are hot torque specs...

if you torque a warm engine fastener to a cold spec, you are not getting the same clamping force.
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forrest, i am only doing this becuase it was reccomend by few people who seem to be doing pretty good in the engine building deopartment, it made sense to me, but you and the majority of the people that have commented on this thread have frowned on what i said, so i am sorry for misleading everyone.
nick, hope eveything is good with your truck.

wes
 
hot torques here, and I have had plenty of people say a MLS gasket won't hold the power I make either. :huh::You guys keep saying it won't work and I will keep my stock gasket for now. :D
 
All hot retorques with good results. Wire o-rings @.010 protrution, studs and torqued to 135 to 145 holds 82psi going on 2 rase seasons. Works for me!
 
Same here with hot T/Q's, close to a 100K on the same head with zero gasket issues.

Jim
 
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