Sorry if this seems a bit sparatic in my description but i am at my whits end and on this project for a little over 4 weeks off and on with VERY little sleep.
I have had a leak of water to oil and hydro locking when starting my truck. It got to the point i decided to just do it and do it right. I ordered the head gasket kit from merchant that had the ARP studs and head gasket, I also ordered all 8 injector cups (didnt want to do this again). when i removed the heads the right side (passenger) back 2 were full of coolant. I had the heads machined and pressure tested (with no cups as mine had not came in yet). WD-40 1000 grit sanded the block untill it had a almost mirror finish. cleaned the injector cup holes with the kent moore bore tool and HUGE Q-tip. used a TON of the red locktight that came with the gasket kit on the bottom of the injector cups, and installed all new OEM injectors to seat the cups. put back together torqued to 125 in the proper order. I went to work (heard the cups need a 24 hour cure time with the locktight so i wasent going to risk it and fill and run before) placed all back together and fired it up, changed the oil and filter 4 times to get the coolant that was in it out of the block and ports. I have drove it for 2 days, and also let idol for hours during the flush process. I have pictures of the entire process if it will help let me know.

Now I noticed it hydro locking again and slight water loss (havent filled with the dex-cool yet) I am at a loss here, no idea where to start or what it could be.
Thanks for any help

It sounds as if you have done everything correctly, without seeing it first hand nobody can be sure.

When you say it's "hydrolocking" what is it doing exactly. To me a hydro lock is a fairly serious problem that rods don't usually survive more than once.

Head gasket or cup leaks are usually accompanied by excess pressure in the cooling system followed by over flows from the tank....not always but usually. Do you have excess pressure?

Water in the oil could also be caused by a cracked block or an oil cooler that has gone bad. Neither one of those is very common.

I supposed a compression or leak down test might help locate a top end problem.

By hydrolock I mean that as it is cranking, it will stop turning over, I will give it 2 to 3 min then try again an it will spin over and start then run fine untill it sits again. As far as over pressure there is none of that it acts fine with no over heating. I have notice that on the passenger side when it "hydro locks" I get water drips mixed with carbon ( dark water like used oil but water none the less) at the clamp that joins the exaust pipe and the exaust manafold. An soon after is starts a brief puff of steam from the exaust. Also, so far I can not see any water in the oil(yet).

Is there a way I could have a turbo leaking into the intake? Because that I haven't touched.

very seldom a turbo but for a quick check take the outlet hose off and check for coolant. Does this truck have a egr cooler on it if so check it for leaks. othe rthan that you may have a cracked block.

well that sounds bleak. No EGR on my 01 so no cooler for it.
Odd thing is i have had the truck for over a year as a daily driver. never a water leak untill just recently and my lower end is stock. and my PPE was never set over level 3 (dont have the money for the allison). the turbo has the increase valve in it ( the blue one). but other than that well my sig is up to date other than the head studs. I am baffled and truly at whits end. if any one has a request of items of my process just let me know and i will post them. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/sonicaudio/01%20Duramax%20head%20gasket%20job/100_0136.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/sonicaudio/01%20Duramax%20head%20gasket%20job/100_0134-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/sonicaudio/01%20Duramax%20head%20gasket%20job/100_0152.jpg
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I had my heads off twice at a shop for coolant pressure. New headgaskets didn't cure the problem. I have them off myself for a third time and at Merchant automotive being gone through. My head a block surface weren't as smooth as yours so hopefully that is my issue. What did you torque the studs to? I also had them install head studs... pull your glow plugs and see which ones are wet.

I had my heads off twice at a shop for coolant pressure. New headgaskets didn't cure the problem. I have them off myself for a third time and at Merchant automotive being gone through. My head a block surface weren't as smooth as yours so hopefully that is my issue. What did you torque the studs to? I also had them install head studs... pull your glow plugs and see which ones are wet.

torqued the nuts to 125 in 4 steps.
step 1 - 37lb
step 2 - 59lb
step 3 - 92lb
step 4 - 125lb

real odd thing is no over pressure or over heating issue. mater of fact it still is running the exact same temp as before. Also it isnt "loosing" coolant as long as it is running. it seems to only leak into the cyl if it is just sitting not running. That is why i was thinking maybe there was some way the turbo could leak to the intake while not running beats me I just dont know...

here is the the in line turbo increase that i have http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/sonicaudio/01%20Duramax%20head%20gasket%20job/01%20Duramax%20teardown/100_0097.jpg

these were from the tear down.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/sonicaudio/01%20Duramax%20head%20gasket%20job/01%20Duramax%20teardown/100_0099.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/sonicaudio/01%20Duramax%20head%20gasket%20job/01%20Duramax%20teardown/100_0102.jpg

always have way more if needed

is there oil in your coolant

there is no oil in the coolant nor was there any before the tear down

well it looks like you did a decent job cleaning up the deck, if the heads were of equal quality, and proper procedure was followed during the re-assembly I see no reason for failure.

Heads were inspected and leak tested? If you have faith in the shop that did the work I would seriously start looking elsewhere for the problem. That APPEARS to be a proper head gasket job.

It's going to be something uncommon at this point. Turbo, cracked block....

The heads were spotless and cemical (dye) tested. There were no cracks ( talked to the guy that did them today). He said that the dye used shows things that a pressure test will miss, as far as the block, I had over 250,000 miles on it (stock bottom end) before it started leaking. I just can't at this point wrap my head arround it just cracking all of the sudden. I have to be missing something. Is isn't leaking coolant ( that I can tell) when it is running, it seems to only do it when sitting doing it's "cool down". When running water level stays the same, as the motor cools that is when the water level seems to drop in the resevour. I will post more details as I know them.

So it's the same cylinders that had coolant in them when you disassembled the engine and pulled the heads. when they dye tested the heads for cracks , all the valve assembly's were removed.
If its the same cylinder , I think you might have a crack between the valve seats, when the truck is shut down the crack starts to open [contracting ], when the engine fires the valve seat area gets hot fast and expands and seals the crack for a while, also when you installed the new cups , you might have sealed the crack on one cylinder temporarily until it opens again. How did they pressure test the heads without the cups? You have seemed to do everything right, I hate to say it but I think some one made a mistake when checking the heads. This is the only place I know of that can leak water into a cylinder and after time it will show up in the engine oil by leaking by the rings. After all the work you've done , I hope it is something else. Good luck Charlie

same cylinder as before just less now. they had to replace all valve guides and 4 of the valve seats, and of course all the valve seals. I didnt see the process just the end results and most of the shops arround here use this machine shop as he is the best around this area. I so hope it is something

just got back from running it on interstate and it is using coolant while running! checked the top hose of the radiator before removing the cap of the fill tank and it had a slight vacuum on the hose while it was idling (didnt shut off the truck when the low coolant light came on) and filled it. This was less than 5 min after the light came on on interstate.

hope this helps pinpoint it before i start pulling it back apart again

could there be a hairline fracture between sleeve and block or between cylinders? i have seen that before and when it was shutdown the cyl. would leak down and let the water in. check around top of sleeve approx. 1/8" down.

pressure test leaked coolant to the front passenger cylinder.

so......cracked block? The last line in your sig couldn't be more true.

Pushrod these engines aren't sleeved, induction hardened cast iron cylinder walls, if you screw up a cylinder more than can be cleaned up the block is scrap

so......cracked block? The last line in your sig couldn't be more true.

Pushrod these engines aren't sleeved, induction hardened cast iron cylinder walls, if you screw up a cylinder more than can be cleaned up the block is scrap

I was leaking on the back passenger before the studs now it is the front, so at this point i would say that eleminates the heads and the block,,, I am now thinking cup, or torque issue

got the head off and here is the head picture that had the leak
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/sonicaudio/01%20Duramax%20head%20gasket%20job/01%20Duramax%20teardown/01%20Duramax%20teardown%20part%202/100_0160.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/sonicaudio/01%20Duramax%20head%20gasket%20job/01%20Duramax%20teardown/01%20Duramax%20teardown%20part%202/100_0159.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/sonicaudio/01%20Duramax%20head%20gasket%20job/01%20Duramax%20teardown/01%20Duramax%20teardown%20part%202/100_0169.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/sonicaudio/01%20Duramax%20head%20gasket%20job/01%20Duramax%20teardown/01%20Duramax%20teardown%20part%202/100_0157.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/sonicaudio/01%20Duramax%20head%20gasket%20job/01%20Duramax%20teardown/01%20Duramax%20teardown%20part%202/100_0172.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/sonicaudio/01%20Duramax%20head%20gasket%20job/01%20Duramax%20teardown/01%20Duramax%20teardown%20part%202/100_0163.jpg

The head passed the presure test, it held 70 psi for 40 minutes, said that the cylender that was leaking had to be ground down .002 (that minor amount could have been from the removal) he wanted to see the gasket that came off. I will post info as I have it.

Well, magna-fluxed the block, and got the head back from the new machinist, He studied the head gasket also for 30 min with a magnifying glass looking for where the water was leaking. found NOTHING. I then sanded the block and cleaned. cleaned the head studs and added the ARP lube to the threads and the nuts, installed and torqued as stated in first post, got it all together, and still have a leak like i never touched it!:mad::mad: this beats me I have no idea from this point as to what it is.

at some point...one of these tear downs you did put new o-rings on the injector cups right? What are you sealing the cups with? Torquing the injector hold downs...the hard pads are still under the hold downs. Not seeing any coolant in the intake? Like the turbo is leaking coolant. I've never seen that happen but I think it's safe to say the "common" problems aren't the source.

when the machinist said that the leaky cylinder had to be ground down..... .002....I think the book only gives ya .004 across the head. That sounds less than ideal. The whole head should be setup on bridgeport, indicated flat and fly cut all at once. Ideally the whole surface gets cut and has as fine a finish as possible on it.

They don't look that bad in the pictures but I've seen better. I can't believe that the gaskets would leak immediately even if the surface was messed up.

Must be something else.

Just the way the carbon is washed away from the top intake valve you would think it is leaking above the valve head .

at some point...one of these tear downs you did put new o-rings on the injector cups right? What are you sealing the cups with? Torquing the injector hold downs...the hard pads are still under the hold downs. Not seeing any coolant in the intake? Like the turbo is leaking coolant. I've never seen that happen but I think it's safe to say the "common" problems aren't the source.

Sorry on the numbers,, it was two one hundred thousands of a inch off on the #1.
On the first tear down I put in all new injectors, new cups, all new seals, an sealed with the red lock tight, then inserted the injectors and torqued before moving on to the next cup. But this head was presure tested at 70 PSI and had no leaks and held the presure for 45 min with no leak down. As far as the intake, it was dry. I drove I today ( frusterated with this being a recuring issue and just tired of my truck just sitting for a month waiting on mchn shop and money to repair) but after fillin with water ( dextron to expensive till I know I have th leak fixed and yes I am useing distilled water only) ran today on interstate and it never lost water when running. I will know tomorrow if it leaks over night as tha seems to be when it is at it's worst is when sitting.

Not to nit pick....but .00002 of an inch is crazy small. We call that 20 millionths in my shop. The heads are aluminum they will change by more than that just by looking at them! I don't think you can even physically indicate something that small. That's like laser territory.

.002 was believable, 2 ten thousandths is ridiculous, 2 one hundred thousandths is not realistic.

Like I said it's a nit pick, but it's my livelihood......if that is in fact what you were told, someone is blowing smoke up your ass or doesn't know what they are talking about.

Was this issue resolved?

I am curious....

Sorta. After doing everything by the book 3 times and still having the leak I used liquid glass. So far not a single drop has been used so. Sorta

When your heads were pressure tested, what temp were they? If they were cold they would not show a leak as small as what you have. since your problem cylinder has moved i would go more towards the parts you are using or something you did, but that is not always the case.

At this point I would think its a stupid question, but have you put a straight edge on the block to see if you have warpage or runout on the cylinder head mating surface?

You state you used liquid glass. On what? The injector cups sealing area? I am having almost the same issues and would like to know what you have done to solve it? Or how it was fixed?
Thanks,

Ok my issue was a cracked head, even pressure tested it didn't show when cold, still running same head but bars makes a stop leak liquid glass.. I only recommend using this if you have already determined it's not the gasket or block. In my case I wasn't going to tear it down again if a 10 dollar bottle would fix it and it has done the trick.