Is there anything special that should be done after head gasket replacement? Be gentle for X hours or miles? Run it hard and let it cool off?
Post Head Gasket Replacement
- Thread starter Cougar281
- Start date
Just curious...did you do the headgaskets your self? How many miles were on your truck... Stock or tuned?
No break in period needed. Drive it like you normally would. Doing head gaskets in the truck sucks. It's easier to either lift the cab or pull the motor. I can have the motor out and on a stand in 4 hours. Makes the job much easier.
Im sure the more you do the easier it is as well. I just had a local diesel shop do mine. Book time is about 32 hours. They had my truck for a month due to waiting on parts, getting heads tested, replacing a valve and guide, etc etc. It is definitely a lot of work from what i have heard. There is A LOT going on under the hood haha
They're not done yet... Motor's coming out Friday night/Saturday Morning. Basically, the LBZ top end is going on my LLY bottom end so I can take my time building the LBZ shortblock. I wouldn't say doing headgaskets on these motors is hard, just time consuming because there's a lot of "stuff" you have to take off and re-install. And I agree, doing a HG job in the truck could be a #@%@$.
Based on my experiences only, I do the obvious road test and let it got through one heat cycle. The next cold start if everything sounds normal then I drive it normal. I am however cautious of the coolant level. These things take about 800 gallons and hold a ton of air even if you have the bleeder open. Some birp right off the bat then some dont for a while. I know mine was almost a month before it stabilized. I dont have the bleeder to use though. We also had one at the shop thats been done for a couple months and he came in complaining of coolant usage. He added about a half gallon. We figured it just birped again.
I have a tool that pus the cooling system under vacuum and uses that vacuum to suck the coolant into the system (Can't think of its name)... Worked beautifully, coolant level never dropped.
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Yeah, I used to have one until I lent it to a friend
. I mean Ex friend.
When I had it it worked great, but never tried on the dmax. I may look into another one then if you say it works just as good on this engine.
. I mean Ex friend.When I had it it worked great, but never tried on the dmax. I may look into another one then if you say it works just as good on this engine.
800 Gallons? Man thats a lot off coolant . When I did my coolant flush I bought maybe 4 gallons. My coolant must be way low.
:happy2:800 Gallons? Man thats a lot off coolant . When I did my coolant flush I bought maybe 4 gallons. My coolant must be way low.
That being the key word here, dont you have some hookup at the dealer?:rofl:
Not everyone is as lucky as me.
People should drive hundreds of miles to get there! The way I recommend that dealer Fritz should give me a new truck. But the dealer is ONLY worth the people that work there. Not that own it. I'm one of a few that really like my dealer. But again it's the mechanics such as yourself that make it that way.
Cheers
Dude... Book time must allow for a lot of problems... From the time I parked the truck to the time the motor was on the stand stripped to a shortblock was about 7 hours of work... and about an hour of that was assembling the second engine stand and running to sears when I broke my 1/2" drive "breaker ratchet" trying to get the crank bolt off... The I proceded to break a "real" 1/2" drive breaker bar in about 30 seconds... When I bought it, my buddy was like "If you break THAT I'm buying you dinner".... Yeah, 30 seconds in, snap! :rofl:
Did he take you some where nice haha. As far as book time and what not, the shops mechanic had 2 weeks of work, 10 8 hour days. From taking it apart, taking the heads to get tested and surfaced, getting them back and putting them back on only to realize a valve guide is cracked, send them back to get a new valve and valve guide put in, yada yada yada. But its back
After I replace a set of headgaskets I like to start the engine an let it idle until operating temp is reached, check for leaks coolant, oil ect, then let it cool off completely an then drive it for about 50 miles not getting the rpms over 2000, that's just my way of doing things, then I give it back to the owner, I don't think u should start hammering on it rite of the bat, that's my 2 cents.:thumb: