Pics of my heads - hows it look?

[fuzzydog]

Got the driver side cylinder head off today and took some pics. I don't think this was the head gasket that was leaking as there is no obvious (not to me anyway) evidence of it (maybe at the back of the 4th cylinder?. Can any of the gurus on here give me a .02 cent opinion on how things look overall?

first four pics are each cylinder in order from the front of the truck.

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what is up with the writing on this one? The truck has almost 400,000kms. Was this cylinder replaced? It is shiny because some coolant got in when I removed the head and I wiped it up.

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does it look like coolant was leaking here? considering how quickly the pressure built up in the cooling system I was expecting to see the fire ring totally eroded away and a distinct streak of black soot going to a coolant passage. hmmm, maybe that is what I will find on the other side?

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these next two show some build up sandy substance on coolant passages I think. is that normal? The triangular shaped ones look like there is metal underneath the sandy stuff and the center is open so probably ok there, but the big round one - YIKES! what is up there?

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And the cylinder head on the workbench.

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looks like a valve seal might be leaking on this one.

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[david85]

The sandy substance in there looks like a leakstop agent to me. I hate it when people use that crap. The writing on the piston looks normal to me, are you sure the other pistons don't have it if you were to wipe them off?

 

[Dieselguy123]

I just put Headgaskets in one of my 6.9's and all the pistons have that same type of stamping on them.

 

[icanfixall]

Sorry to point this out but your last picture looks like the head is cracked between the valve seats. This is where they crack. Might be a good idea to have them professionally lookad it before you reassemble the engine... No need to do this job twice....

 

[jonathan]

x2

 

[fuzzydog]

Sorry to point this out but your last picture looks like the head is cracked between the valve seats. This is where they crack. Might be a good idea to have them professionally lookad it before you reassemble the engine... No need to do this job twice....

Thanks, that's why I posted the pics. But I think it is ok - I cleaned it up a bit and looks like it was just a streak of grease or something. Both heads are getting professionally checked out. I got a referral to a small engine shop that has a great reputation for rebuilding these engines. I talked to the owner and he seemed very interested in my project and knowledgeable.
Here is a new pic with the area between the valve seats cleaned up with alcohol. I guess there could be a very tiny crack in there - the pros will let me know.

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Any thoughts on the white deposits? Isn't that usually a sign of running lean?

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

These engines really dont run lean. Not in the same sense as a gasburner. You can run out of fuel and run out of power but not lean.

I'll tell you one thing about rebuilding one of these engines. Do your homework before taking anything to a "professional" because the one thing I sent out for "professional" work (the cylinder heads on my 6.9) has come back to bite me in the ass not once, but TWICE. Most people that consider themselves diesel knowitalls, or diesel gods are nothing more than just yesterdays honda tuner ****** and todays diesel rice ******. What I mean by do your homework, I mean ask them for references to people that had work done on IDI engines with them. Doesn't matter if its a Ford or Chevy IDI, they are both basically the same and require the same attention to keep from destroying your engine. The cylinder heads on an IDI have precups in them, and those precups are the failure point for most "know everything" machinists. 9/10 machinists will do them wrong and you'll be plagued with head problems forever.

 

[icanfixall]

Your pictures show me lots of inforamtion... These heads have been worked on at least once before.. If you look at the exhaust valces in the pics one has a dimple in the middle of it.... Usually thats an inconel turbo exhaust valve... supposedly those are the only valves we can get these days. So before you get too deep into these heads its best to know how much has been milled off of them to flatten them.. The new factory head thickness is anything between 4.795 and 4.805.... The valves need to be set a certain depth into the heads too... The intake is 0.042 to 0.054 and the exhaust is 0.051 to 0.063...

 

[Knuckledragger]

Thanks, that's why I posted the pics. But I think it is ok - I cleaned it up a bit and looks like it was just a streak of grease or something. Both heads are getting professionally checked out. I got a referral to a small engine shop that has a great reputation for rebuilding these engines. I talked to the owner and he seemed very interested in my project and knowledgeable.
Here is a new pic with the area between the valve seats cleaned up with alcohol. I guess there could be a very tiny crack in there - the pros will let me know.

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Any thoughts on the white deposits? Isn't that usually a sign of running lean?

Have the shop magnaflux the areas between the valves, that will tell you definitively if there are cracks.

The white stuff is unusual but nothing to be concerned about. As 6NEBIDIs said, diesels don't run lean or rich, fuel delivery amount is what makes the difference between idle and highway speed. Not ignition curve (remember, no spark plugs) and not fuel/air mixture ratio. Just more or less fuel. These engines will happily idle for hours on end using the tiniest amounts of fuel.

 

[fuzzydog]

Thanks a lot guys, really appreciate the input and advice.

 

[Diesel JD]

The main thing is to do like you hopefully did and release the torque on the heads slowly and in the correct sequence which I'm sure you did. Second you don't want those heads milled below minimum thickness specs. I didn't know this when I had mine done, and I don't know how much the machinist took off, but he said 0.005 or less, and that was enough to increase my 450 psi and even compression to 525 on the highest to around 450 on the lowest, still within specs but not as good. I don't know much about the precups but Sean and Gary have done their research on them. Definitely worth getting the heads pressure checked and magnafluxed. After that get the block/head mating surfaces clean enough to eat off of and get the threads chased and you'll be in good shape. Your engine looks pretty good so far, the only thing I saw was where apparently one of the pistons got to know a glow plug tip, but almost all IDIs seem to have this slight damage with little ill effect. Good luck

 

[hesutton]

I'd look at the underside of the headgasket as well to see if there is any evidence of failure. The sandy stuff my be old casting sand.

I've cut open a few coolant filters of mine and that sand is always there, but in smaller and smaller volumes. You should add a coolant filter to your rig during the project.

All the pistons I've seen have "camside" with an arrow on the top.

Be sure to have the heads tested throughly.

Heath

 

[fuzzydog]

MOre progress today since it warmed up considerably - I got the pass side head out and my limited experience in these things tells me it is the culprit. Here are some pics.
First thing I noticed was when removing the head bolts (following proper procedure) two of them looked...different. They had a lot of rusty crap in the threads. turns out that 3 of the middle 4 head bolts were this way but I didn't know about the 3rd one til I got the head off as I couldn't get the bolt out before removing the head.

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then we take a look at the head gasket. This was most disappointing. I was expecting (hoping, even) to find one of the fire rings burnt through but they all appear to have sealed quite well, but on the other hand there does seem to be some kind of gasket unhappiness around the lower coolant passages

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And the block itself with the gasket removed.

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Thoughts?

 

[fuzzydog]

oh and here are the pics of the driver side head gasket

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[icanfixall]

From these pictures my feelings are some shop or person before you replaced the head gaskets and did a really bad job of it... The top piston and cylinder pic looks like that was the water leak... All the fire rings should look shiny... any off color burn is a leak. The block tells me your working on a 7.3 engine too by the plug in the edge. What has the shop told you about the heads....