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This picture should say it all

http://www.gatewaydata.com/truck/Headoff1.JPG


Yes, that is my brand spanking new motor.

What happend, you ask?

Well, the thing would not start last thursday. Locked solid. I have a boat that had bad manifolds that would fill the cyl with water after you stopped, so I have seen that symptom before. It sure seemed like it "hydraulic-ed" to me, so I figured I would pull glow plugs out to see what was up.

As luck would have it the first one was #1 and the plug was followed by a stream of coolant. (Insert MUCH foul language here). I checked the engine oil, and there was no trace of coolant in the oil, and later, when I drained the coolant, there was no trace of oil in the coolant. I called Jamie Advant and advised him of the problem.

Jamie said that he can't remember the last time they had a head gasket problem, but we agreed that the head would have to come off. Jamie immediatly started the process of sending up new gaskets and head bolts. I agreed to pull the head, and if it was a head gasket, then Jamie and I would settle up later on my labor.

When I pulled the intake off, I shone a light down the #1 intake runner and the SOB was full of coolant on top of a closed intake valve. :wtf: I couldn't see how a blown head gasket would get coolant ON TOP of a valve.

But, I proceeded with the teardown, hoping to see a big chunk out of the head gasket. Sure enough, the head gasket was in good shape with no obvious coolant tracks to the cyl. Again, I called Jamie an we agreed that the problem HAD to be in the head. Jamie said he would be shipping me up a new head.

We talked some more, and decided to have me punch out the intake valve and inspect the runner. We were both dying to know what would cause this.

What I found was a small hole in the casting of the intake runner.

http://www.gatewaydata.com/truck/Hole1.JPG
Seen from the valve seat

http://www.gatewaydata.com/truck/Hole2.JPG
seen from the intake port

http://www.gatewaydata.com/truck/Hole3.JPG
Closeup from intake port.

This hole was letting coolant under pressure into the intake runner.

I would like to add that the truck ran (strong) for a week before this happend with NO problems. I don't think that this hole was caused by anything the Diesel Depot did or didnt do. I also dont think that any amount of testing could have forseen this problem. Jamie Avant is standing by his product, and he is taking the proper steps to make it right by me. Which is a damn sight better than GM did with the FSD's.

I should have the new head by friday, and I should have The Big Blue Truck back on the road by the first of August.

Some times I don't know whether to laugh or cry...

Tim

CR, Sorry to hear about the bad bit of luck. Glad to see that you are getting things worked out and probably didn't do any serious harm to the new engine.

Might be b/c of my work firewall/network security, but this page hangs up trying to connect to "gatewaydata.com" and there are no pictures that I can see (assuming they are hosted elsewhere).

BTW, what did you ever decide - lift or drop?

Makes one wonder if before putting anything "USED BUT GOOD" on these trucks if complete disassembly & NDT inspect every possible nook and cranny on these, at least you found the problem without major incident.

Tim were those your original heads or ones that came with the new rebuild engine

CR, Sorry to hear about the bad bit of luck. Glad to see that you are getting things worked out and probably didn't do any serious harm to the new engine.

Might be b/c of my work firewall/network security, but this page hangs up trying to connect to "gatewaydata.com" and there are no pictures that I can see (assuming they are hosted elsewhere).

BTW, what did you ever decide - lift or drop?
Hmm, never had a problem with my site before. Works ok from here. It's a site I made for a business I started that I had to "Back-Burner" for awhile. I keep the site up as a vigil to one day getting it going again. I can e-mail you the pics if you are dying to see them, shoot me a line at tpstreisel "at" yahoo "dot" com and I'll send them to ya.

Definatly drop. I would LOVE to airbag it. It would ride like a caddy, but the Air-Bar suspenion is $1800 an end :eek: . I'll probably go with a Belltech 5/7 drop next year.

Makes one wonder if before putting anything "USED BUT GOOD" on these trucks if complete disassembly & NDT inspect every possible nook and cranny on these, at least you found the problem without major incident.

Tim were those your original heads or ones that came with the new rebuild engine

Those are not the original heads. I marked them just to see if I got the same heads back. I really didn't expect to, or cared about it one way or the other.

Jamie assured me that he pressure tested the block and heads, and I am inclined to agree with him. It ran for a week with no problems. I dunno what would have caused the hole, other than a flaw in the casting, but I am glad it showed itself NOW as opposed to 2 years from now, or when I was 900 miles from home.

Tim

Looks like sand in the casting to me....sand comes out, hello ole pinhole...
As you said, Cowracer, this probably happened in the best place it could..your driveway...that would have been really ugly if you had been tooling down the interstate when that decided to let go....

I think the guy standing by his product says it all. Nice hole BTW, I wonder if a guy could fill that hole with weld and put it back on and have it hold? I would in a pinch.

I'm thinking a QM economy field fix would be to plug it with a screw and some JB weld around it, and run it until it got really bad maybe a little spray paint so it would look good also. Sorry QM could not pass on opportunity to jab at ya, how you been :D

Unless it's a camera shadow in last close up pic and proclevity of cracks associated with these engines when pushed to the limit, I'm left wondering about the crack I think I'm seeing beside the hole, which could probably weld repaired in a pinch, but what is rest of metal beside it like, fix the hole and then propogate another one beside it somewhere else, lets hope this is but one anomaly in all the heads out there.

I'm thinking a QM economy field fix would be to plug it with a screw and some JB weld around it, and run it until it got really bad maybe a little spray paint so it would look good also. Sorry QM could not pass on opportunity to jab at ya, how you been :D

Since I have a '68 lincon SA-200, jb weld would not be the material or method of choice. I was also thinking that just heating it (oxy-acytalene/propane) brazing in your material of choice to fill the hole would do the trick and of course the local shop may do the work for you but ha ha isn't it good to be home and catching up with what you guys are going through BANG! there goes another 6.5L. j/k!

Actually, I'm about to pull the head on the '94. I've been living with an exhuast gas pushing out coolant issue and I might be painting again soon. :D

I seem to remember hearing about some "new" head castings that were made out of inferior material or some such thing... I beleive Straycat over on the page had a very similar problem with his Avant engine. Sorry to hear about your luck with the new engine, although I echo others thoughts in that at least it happened at home and not on the road somewhere.