zigg
Full Access Member
For those of you interested, I'm still working on the weird leaking headgaskets on my new 6.9 engine...Click here to read old thread(long)...
I finally gave up on all the testing, and pulled the heads. What I found has many baffled. More questions, no answers.
There has obviously been coolant sitting on the deck of the block, and above the gasket against the head. There are rust stains on both surfaces all along the exhaust side, front to back, and up between the cylinders, but not all the way to the intake side, It looks like the gasket made a good seal all along the intake side front to back. The gaskets look like they were never really crushed at all. At the outer edge, where the gasket isn't crushed at all, you'd think you'd be able to feel a difference between the crushed area, but there's no discernible lip at all. There's the odd spot at the cylinder edge, where it looks like not much contact at all with the fire ring, and soot has leaked out.
I had the Drivers' head into a shop, and they pressure tested it to 40 psi, and checked it out for flatness and warpage, and said it passed on all accounts.
Since it is the same on both sides, and since it affected each cylinder more or less the same, I think it rules out a cracked block or head anyway, 'cause that would have to mean there's a crack in each cylinder. That leaves only 2 things that would be the common denominator.
The head gaskets, and the studs. I've had my torque wrench tested, and it's accurate, so I doubt the studs could be a problem, since they should clamp better than the bolts, and I checked the torque on the heads before I removed them, and it was still at 85 ft. lbs, so it's looking like somehow I musta got a bad set of head gaskets.
The gaskets are not felpro, or IH, but a company called Victor Reinz.
Anyone heard anything about these gaskets good or bad?
So, this weekend weather permitting, I'm going to do one final test. The local IH shop has lent me a set of hydro plates to bolt onto the block in place of the heads, to pressure test the block coolant passages. I'm gonna try that, then I'm going to lay the heads on the block without a gasket and slide feeler gauges under them and see if I can find any clearance at all, between the two.
Then if that doesn't show anything, I guess I can only try to button it all back up again with new gaskets from IH, and see how that works.
Another $300 down the drain....(sigh)
Any thoughts before I dive in....?
zigg
I finally gave up on all the testing, and pulled the heads. What I found has many baffled. More questions, no answers.
There has obviously been coolant sitting on the deck of the block, and above the gasket against the head. There are rust stains on both surfaces all along the exhaust side, front to back, and up between the cylinders, but not all the way to the intake side, It looks like the gasket made a good seal all along the intake side front to back. The gaskets look like they were never really crushed at all. At the outer edge, where the gasket isn't crushed at all, you'd think you'd be able to feel a difference between the crushed area, but there's no discernible lip at all. There's the odd spot at the cylinder edge, where it looks like not much contact at all with the fire ring, and soot has leaked out.
I had the Drivers' head into a shop, and they pressure tested it to 40 psi, and checked it out for flatness and warpage, and said it passed on all accounts.
Since it is the same on both sides, and since it affected each cylinder more or less the same, I think it rules out a cracked block or head anyway, 'cause that would have to mean there's a crack in each cylinder. That leaves only 2 things that would be the common denominator.
The head gaskets, and the studs. I've had my torque wrench tested, and it's accurate, so I doubt the studs could be a problem, since they should clamp better than the bolts, and I checked the torque on the heads before I removed them, and it was still at 85 ft. lbs, so it's looking like somehow I musta got a bad set of head gaskets.
The gaskets are not felpro, or IH, but a company called Victor Reinz.
Anyone heard anything about these gaskets good or bad?
So, this weekend weather permitting, I'm going to do one final test. The local IH shop has lent me a set of hydro plates to bolt onto the block in place of the heads, to pressure test the block coolant passages. I'm gonna try that, then I'm going to lay the heads on the block without a gasket and slide feeler gauges under them and see if I can find any clearance at all, between the two.
Then if that doesn't show anything, I guess I can only try to button it all back up again with new gaskets from IH, and see how that works.
Another $300 down the drain....(sigh)
Any thoughts before I dive in....?
zigg
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After a hard day of rollin, twistin & rockin you might enjoy the soothing phychadelic green river
Damn I can't even spell that right now
Anyway let us know how it turns out and remember the fine threads pull harder on the block than course, follow arp specs to the letter.
