Had a question that came to mind, and I want to do a little scientific investigation. Head gaskets are known problems on these engines. Mostly due to a high compression engine, and add a turbo, and gaskets seem to fail.

What I’m trying to figure out here, is the type of usage, and what contributes more to failure. Now, I know that if you are doing: towing, or running abnormally high boost pressure, you’d be a candidate for gasket replacement. But, in reading, I see daily drivers that baby their rigs that have same issue. So, here’s my question:

If you have had a head gasket failure, on a daily driver with no towing… did you let the engine warm up and cool off before and after trip? My question comes from this: if you start a cold engine, hop in and drive, you have two big hunks of metal (block and heads) expanding at what may be somewhat dissimilar rates. If you let the engine warm up, and cool down before and after trip, will that help with head gasket issues?

Just wondering out loud and wonder what this poll will come out with.

i don't think that the trip that the gasket failed on is the deciding factor of weather warming up and cooling down is what causes gasket failure it would be more of a style of driving it has been my experience that the cause of a failure usualy happend long before the actual failure itself.

Ah, yes, true. But the question really wasn't about the trip it failed on, but the trips and how the engine was treated BEFORE it failed. Maybe I was a little too vague in asking my question.

my 6.2 was driven hard and fast b4 failure 1hr or more at wot then shut down 4-6 times a week for a year

Was that an n/a or a turbo 6.2?

Head gasket failures typically come in two flavors

Between adjacent cylinders - this is usually occurs after incidents of overheating and high EGT's, as from towing or pushing up long inclines, stopping and shutting down for a cooldown, running till it gets hot again, shutting down again, and etc.

Since most of your vehicles are second and third and etc owner units, you usually have no idea of how the vehicle faired before you got it, so a head gasket failure may occur under seemingly normal conditions to you.

Second flavor is the coolant leak down the back of the block, compression is good, no misfiring, all else seems normal.

This type of leak, from one of the corner block-to-head water passages, is usually due to coolant with altered pH factor, caused by long-term sitting -
only used to tow a trailer during vacation
delivery vehicle, where the drivers would rather drive the gassers
other similar scenarios
also,short tripping, where coolant temp never stabilizes.

Mixing anti-freeze types, changing anti-freeeze types without a complete flush, or diluting ratio by adding water-only.

Again, these failures can seem to occur under normal circumstances to the current owner - knowing the history of the vehicle is the key.

And, there are those one-owner normal circumstance failures - that, folks, is just gremlins! ;)

kn?

6.2 was n/a

Gee.... am I the only one that warms up and cools down?

Gee.... am I the only one that warms up and cools down?

YEP :lol:

knk, you're not alone. I try to warm up and cool down all my mechanical stuff, including tractor, chainsaw, etc. don't get me wrong i beat stuff like a red-headed stepchild ONCE its warm :D (except the GMC, it just has to work hard from time to time). stuff generally lasts a long time for me, and i can think of better ways to spend time than tearing into the worst-to-work on GMC.

I'm the same as Bob I let every thing I own warm up and cool down, both trucks, snowmobile, four wheeler etc. Some people give me crap about warming up my pickup on a 90 degree day but I guess every body has there opinion. Just installed the high idle on my 6.5, that should cut down on some idle time.

knk, you're not alone. I try to warm up and cool down all my mechanical stuff, including tractor, chainsaw, etc. don't get me wrong i beat stuff like a red-headed stepchild ONCE its warm :D (except the GMC, it just has to work hard from time to time). stuff generally lasts a long time for me, and i can think of better ways to spend time than tearing into the worst-to-work on GMC.

I too let mine warn up atleast 5min before driving and idle atleast 5min before shutting it down. I'm the only owner of this truck 222,500+ miles on it and no head gasket failures to date. I've just been told by many big rig drivers including my Dad, and Hot Shot Drivers that with any Turbo Diesel you need to warm it up before driving and cool it down after driving or you could blow the head gaskets. Just my 0.02