Bad head gasket or worse?

[Jesse6325]

I have a question,,
Yesterday when I went to check the coolant the radiator had pressure on it from cold.
Started it up and it built pressure again but after it warmed up it stopped building pressure. I didn't run it long enough to open the thermostat.
No oil in the coolant and no water in the oil.
No water vapor out the exhaust either that I can tell.
Do you think I can get away with just retorquing the heads? Or probably need a set of head gaskets?
Sorta worried about it not building pressure in coolant system after it warms up,,,,,

 

[dozer1]

I have a question,,
Yesterday when I went to check the coolant the radiator had pressure on it from cold.
Started it up and it built pressure again but after it warmed up it stopped building pressure. I didn't run it long enough to open the thermostat.
No oil in the coolant and no water in the oil.
No water vapor out the exhaust either that I can tell.
Do you think I can get away with just retorquing the heads? Or probably need a set of head gaskets?
Sorta worried about it not building pressure in coolant system after it warms up,,,,,

It will be good to see what others say too, but as long as the things that are highlighted are true, maybe you should run it more and get more evidence. Does your temp gauge work good? If the truck gets up to temp and holds it well, and doesn't overheat, your cooling system is doing what it is supposed to.

 

[gimpyrobb]

MIne keeps pressure in it too. Not sure I would worry till oil and coolant swap spots.

 

[WillWagner]

No cross contamination, don't worry about it. Some vehicles hold pressure over night, some don't .

 

[rlwm211]

Pressure in and of itself is not an indicator of much.

The barometer can change or you can have a cap that is not venting.

Are you sure the pressure is positive??????

It could be negative and only the result of the cooling of the system and a reduction in volume as a result.

Check your vent line down the side of the radiator. If this is plugged it can make diagnosis all the more difficult.

I would consider a new radiator cap if you have not already gotten one.

Shutting down the truck without a cooldown can leave pressure in the system,

I will close by saying mine does this too and we just did head gaskets.

My Coolant is fine. Oil is fine. I just check them as I should.

On mine we did headgaskets becaise it was pushing oil out from under the head onto the block.. Seepage past the fire rings. It had the new gaskets too. Of course, over fueling may have aggravated this as this was before the pyrometers were installed.

 

[ratat98]

I'm getting ready to replace the head gaskets on mine... My symptoms are an intermittent loss of power at 2200rpm, oil leaking from the front of the block at the gasket, and my coolant has turned brown. I haven't even looked at the oil yet to see how much water is in it..
I used to have a dodge cummins that would keep pressure on the radiator...I never had a problem with it!

 

[Jesse6325]

Thanks guys! I tend to be a bit of a worry wart over her, Right now taking the drivers side rear suspension apart to replace torque rod bushings and seals as well as do the brakes,,,,AND replace the bearing in the spring hangar,,,
Really didn't want another thing to add to the list,,,,

 

[dabtl]

If you find 'milkshake' on the bottom of the oil filler cap you have a problem.

Sometimes it is not a head gasket. I went crazy till I finally diagnosed the problem as a cracked head, in the intake valve port of the #6 cylinder. It has run fine since.

 

[hoop]

Take the guess work out of it. Send off an oil sample.

 

[ken]

OIl seeping from between the block and heads does not mean you have a bad head gasket on these engines. The blocks have small slots milled in them to relieve gases. This will make the engine slobber oil all over itself. Believe it or not this is normal. Jesse, I would suspect the rad cap first. And i would drive it hard enough to get it up to operating temp. Then see if it holds pressure.

 

[ratat98]

OIl seeping from between the block and heads does not mean you have a bad head gasket on these engines. The blocks have small slots milled in them to relieve gases. This will make the engine slobber oil all over itself. Believe it or not this is normal. Jesse, I would suspect the rad cap first. And i would drive it hard enough to get it up to operating temp. Then see if it holds pressure.

Really? Mine likes to slobber out of the #1 cyl, and loses power intermittently and there is a very notable misfire at 2200rpm on flat road...It kicks back in going up a hill. I don't have any milkshake anything yet, but I've always suspected it was a head gasket...any other ideas?

 

[rlwm211]

The slot is not in the block. It is in some of the older gaskets before they integrated the fire ring into the gasket itself.

There is a bit of history as to the evolution of the head gaskets of the LDT LDS motors. At one point they put the slots in the headgaskets to the side of the engine for each cylinder to keep the oil out of the airstream from the fan.

Suffice it to say that the newest design have the integrated fire ring and do not have the slot for the oil to seep out. This is based on my having done the headgaskets on my truck and seeing this first hand. I would add that I changed my headgaskets and planed the heads as it was seeping oil pretty heavily from under the gasket and head. These were the new style gaskets too.

In my case we determined that overfueling was likely the culprit as when I bypassed the FDC this caused a substantial increase in power output as a result of the higher pressure of the fuel system. I bypassed the FDC because fuel was getting into the oil. This is a common result of a worn FDC.

RATAT it sounds like you have a fuel delivery problem and not a cylinder problem. Do you run any additives to pump diesel????? If not, it could be because of a lack of lubrication in your fuel.

 

[ratat98]

I normally put some ATF in the tank when I fill it. I had a thread on this a while ago, and it stopped after that. I thought the coolant was turning brown and milky, but I checked it yesterday and it looks like new. I have some new head gaskets sitting in my garage, I'll change them anyways and see what I find under the heads

 

[rlwm211]

2 stroke Outboard motor oil is better than ATF. ATF has friction ENHANCERS which are not as friendly to the IP as straight oil.

At www.JATONKAM35s.com there is a fuel study available in the resources section that discussed the lubrication properties of the ULSD. Suffice it to say, the process of removing the sulfer also destroys the lubrication properties that Diesel normally has. If you read this study it will explain this a lot better than I can in one post.

Hope this is helpful

 

[deathrowdave]

Head Gaskets

As far as holding pressure in the cooling system , mine will hold pressure for days . Leaking head gaskets:mine starting blowing compression (pressure) against the fire wall . Sounded like an exhaust leak. Progressively got worse after it started leaking. I found that during Gov. rebuild that both side of the head gaskets were coated with Anti-Seeze , no way to seal !!

 

[Jesse6325]

It has held pressure on a couple of 50 mile trips, No milkshake/munge under the oil fill cap.
I do have a couple of oil seeps around the heads though. Enough that i know they are there but not bad enough that it's sreaking oil down the block.

 

[Shawn MacAnanny]

Holding pressure is normal, mine does, BUT holding alot of pressure is NOT. Just because there is no oil in coolant, or vice versa doesnt mean there isnt a compression leak into a coolant jacket. I blew both head gaskets in my 01 Duramax Silverado. granted i run 32psi and those year head gaskets werent the best but i drove over 10,000 miles on blown head gaskets. It pressurize my coolant tank (Alot) to the point it would come out of the overflow tank almost, and the cap would almost EXPLODE when i took it off with a rush of air and coolant. Also the upper radiator hose was rock solid. on the deuces theres a spring i believe so it would be harder to tell.

I used to tow 10k-15k every day with it, never over heated, never once blew any coolant out of the exhaust or leaked any oil in the coolant. Only think i noticed was the engine was much harder to get temperature up (at idle it would run colder).

Anyway i dont think you have a blow head gasket but things i have come to realize with turbo diesels is they dont always show coolant out of the exhaust or in the oil, you can leak cylinder pressure directly into a water jacket and never have a problem just an overflowing pressurize coolant system.

 

[Wildchild467]

As far as holding pressure in the cooling system , mine will hold pressure for days . Leaking head gaskets:mine starting blowing compression (pressure) against the fire wall . Sounded like an exhaust leak. Progressively got worse after it started leaking. I found that during Gov. rebuild that both side of the head gaskets were coated with Anti-Seeze , no way to seal !!

Thats why i like to double check everything and not trust whatever work private pyle did there isnt one part of my M35A2 that i dont know about! now im getting aquainted with my M109A3. its like falling in love all over again! haha!