New truck with blown head gasket, advice please.

[G. Mann]

OK... I bought yet another IDI F350, CC, DRW, presently has no bed. It's a cab chassis truck and had a flatbed on it.. previous owner kept the bed.. sold me the truck.

Starts and runs pretty good.. needs some love. Glow plugs do NOT glow.. so need to fix all that..

What I have: 92 F350, 4 doors, dual rear wheels. Alcoa rims. 7.3 [of course], Banks turbo,with C6 trans [Found a Banks trans command box bolted to the frame, not connected to anything.. ??.

Arizona/Nevada truck, NO RUST.. none.. body is straight.. [no pictures yet].

Now the bad news, Head gasket is blown, right bank. Pushes pressure out the radiator when running, blows clouds of white smoke out exhaust, and steam at rear of right side engine. [yep.. also makes a racket when it runs from the compression pressure at the leak.. so it's "blown out" .

QUESTIONS:

Who makes the best gasket set?

What will I likely find on tear down for damage to the head surface?

Head bolts. Do I need to get new ones? Where? [The engine has 227,000 miles on it.. umm .. Don't think I want to do studs]

Glo plugs.. which ones are best?

Good time for fresh injectors and valve job? Fresh IP?

I have a spare ZF 5 speed with new clutch and flywheel.
I'm leaning towards pulling the engine / trans as a unit and taking the opportunity to do the change to manual while I have it "down", as well as resealing everything. Advise?

Can I pull the core support and pull the engine / trans as a unit?

Thanks in advance..

G...

 

[dunk]

Perfect time to swap the ZF5. I would without a doubt do studs. You can reuse bolts but studs are cheap insurance to so you don't have to do the job again. Check the heads for straight, check valve guide wear (not sure what clearance is acceptable), and lap valves. If it needs more, do it. Better to do what it needs the first time.

 

[cpdenton]

I have pulled a 7.3 with a banks while still hooked to the trans. Probably would have been easier to unbolt the trans, but....

You should remove the turbo first. I pulled it still hooked up, but it destroyed the cowl, which wasn't a problem on the truck I was scrapping from. Cab was bad already.

 

[stealth13777]

A lot of what I'm going to say is what this forum has taught me over the last six months, so I'm sure people who know even more will chime in, but here goes:

Glow plugs = beru (motorcraft) ONLY

Head bolts are a gamble as to whether or not they have been stretched past their yield point. I'd compare prices studs vs new bolts and bet I'd go studs. Your decision. I'm sure some have reused with success, but too much work for me personally to gamble.

People seem to have good luck with fel pro and victor reinz gaskets

You can pull everything together as you described, but I concur on pulling the turbo first just for space.

Might as well go through the heads, but be very careful cutting them or decking the block; the tolerance is low. Valve clearance. I've been all over this in my build thread and the guys here were very helpful; ended up having to shave my pistons all by 10 thousandths.

The question that will be asked, is how old are your injectors or IP?

Hope it helps, good luck!




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[Kistthesky]

make sure to remove the oil filter or it will get hung up on the frame and NEVER USE AUTOLITE GLOW PLUGS, i know this has been said thousands of times but it's true they swell every time, i just replaced all of mine installed by the PO & i was damn lucky to get them all out, had to use pliers to wiggle the ones i could reach from the top and a large screw driver and a prayer to pop out the other ones.

 

[sassyrel]

They are torque to yield bolts, meaning they are now compromised.








[/QUOTE]

sure of that???

 

[Agnem]

I'm sure by now you probably found this, but in case you didn't... http://www.thedieselstop.com/contents/getitems.php3?6.9L Gasket and Turbo Install

 

[IDIoit]

i have found it easiest to unbolt the trans, and turbo to pull the engine out. But this all depends on the method of hoisting you are using. I pull engines with a forklift, and a load leveler. Makes the job quite easy.
I always cringe when people pull the front clip off. The core support and fenders are not that hard to pull, but the inner fenders and all the electrical attached to them makes me unbolt the 6 bolts on the trans, torque converter bolts, turbo and hood.
I hate trying to realign body panels, I don't have that talent.
As far as head bolts, I would buy new ones. People have reused them, but it all depends what your head bolts look like when you pull them out. I've seen some pretty nasty ones come out.

Good luck on the build!

 

[stealth13777]

They are torque to yield bolts, meaning they are now compromised.

sure of that???[/QUOTE]

I stand corrected, they technically were not torque to yield, based on what I looked up. Could they have been torqued (or loaded) past elastic and into plastic deformation? Definitely. And many have found stretched bolts due to exactly that. But they could be reused if this hasn't happened. Corrected my initial response.


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[icanfixall]

Our head bolts are NOT torque to yield. Where did you guys read this? As for rebuilding the heads. Thats a great idea but at least have them checked. The max cut the heads can take is about 5 thousands. The minimum head thickness is 4.795. A uncut head is 4.801 or near that. Valve recess into the heads is also very important. Be sure you ask the shop if they know how deep the intake or exhaust valves needs to be set in the heads. Do both heads when you remove the bad one. No telling how close the other head gasket is to letting go. I'm not sure what head you are posting about. Instead of right or left please say its the passenger or drivers side. That illimates any guess work on what side your talking about. I use the Felpro head gaskets but nothing wrong with the Victor Reinz gaskets. Some believe the VR gaskets are better. I feel they might be too but just have no need to test this idea. My felpro are doing fine after 8 years of boosting 13+ on my engine.

 

[G. Mann]

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. Keep em coming guys.. you all just saved me a heap of trouble with your experience.

To clarify, it is the passenger side head that blew. I'm pretty sure I will pull the engine and trans together after taking the turbo off and pulling the oil filter. The radiator needs to go to the shop and be checked and cleaned just as good precaution. It looks pretty new, like the previous owner threw a new radiator at the problem perhaps.

Looks like Fel Pro or Victor Reniz are my choices for gasket set.

Sure could use some help on where is the best place to get NEW head bolts..
Pretty sure, I'll try to milk another 100,000 or so out of the engine, if teardown doesn't show any thing bad inside. So for now, no studs or big boost, just normal "truck use" ..

I'm hoping the water to cylinder damage has been "light" and will clean up with no broken piston or bent rod. UGh..

If I can find a donor truck for clutch and brake, would be a great time to do hydroboost, and clean up some of the wiring mess made by previous owner .

The oil pan bottom is smashed up like someone used it to jack the truck, which is another decision point to pull the engine, pull the pan, and straighten it out so the oil pickup has proper room.

A ZF 5 speed is waiting for it.. lucky me.. [been planning this for a while, just looking for the "right truck" with 4 doors.

I truly appreciate everyones help.. THANKS !

 

[stealth13777]

One of the better ford dealers (white bear lake) for prices wants $25 each for the head bolts. They list at ~40 each. Maybe someone on here found them sold in a form other than individually, or maybe inspection and reuse isn't such a bad idea haha. I paid ~300 total for studs in my 6.9, ordered from allen's fasteners.


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[Hydro-idi]

Ebay sells headbolts for the 7.3 idi. Looks like they are almost sold out. Here's link.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/7-3-IDI-INT...Parts_Accessories&hash=item35b8599365&vxp=mtr

 

[icanfixall]

Our engines require 34 head bolts. So if you buy from that ebay store you will need 2 sets of 17 bolts. The amount sold and amount left is a might misleading.

 

[whitehorse]

I contacted banks about the wiring harness for the transcommand back in the summer....it was 32 bucks plus shipping and banks has great customer service...