Headgasket symptom?

[Jakemax04]

I'm thinking my headgaskets are on their way out. Here's a pic inside my coolant tank...
That's not a good sign right?

 

[cstephens93]

Looks sooty. I had blown gaskets. My coolant looked like that towards the end

 

[Jakemax04]

You do it yourself?

 

[cstephens93]

You do it yourself?

Yup

 

[Jakemax04]

How long it take? And I'm guessing about $1000 with Arp's

 

[Ridin'GMC]

How many miles on the truck and did you flush the coolant?

 

[Jakemax04]

How many miles on the truck and did you flush the coolant?

158k, new coolant with new water pump at about 130k

 

[cstephens93]

How long it take? And I'm guessing about $1000 with Arp's

I worked an entire week on it. Spent about 4-6 hours each day with jerking around Monday through Wednesday, then Thursday I started around 7:30am and had it running by 11pm that night.

This all included time resurfacing the heads and doing a slight bowl blend port job by hand on each head, installing a MBRP downpipe, PPE shim kit and such

Cost roughly 1000 with the ARPs, maybe a few bucks less.

 

[Jakemax04]

I've got a Trans to build then I guess I'll tackle that beast, joy!

 

[cstephens93]

It wasnt that bad. But it still sucked. Id rather pull a trans any day

 

[ty_LBZ]

Is the upper hose hard on cold mornings? Coolant blowing out of overfill tank?

 

[Jakemax04]

Doesn't get too cold here in tx. I pulled the cap off yesterday after driving it around and seemed like normal amount of air came out. No coolant came out. Just checked it after sitting all night. Hose is squishy

 

[Jakemax04]

I think it may be just the beginning of a head gasket failure.

 

[Brent@LDS]

If you end up doing head gaskets we carry the complete kit with ARP studs for $925. Let us know if we can help.

 

[chandler583]

I got an "everything you need" HG repair kit with ARPs. It was just under $1k. I also put a new FPR on it, did the GM #2 & #7 injector fix, LML exhaust manifold all at the same time. When I put it back together, the fuel rail pressure sensor went bad, that was $200. All in all, I was in it about $1600 in parts. Got a smokin' deal on labor and got that done for $1500 and $100 to surface heads.

It's not cheap, but you feel so much better when it's done.

 

[Jakemax04]

Is surfacing of the heads normally done with hg's or is it a case by case thing?

 

[chandler583]

I would recommend it. It would just really depend on the case though. If you were in a pinch and needed the truck back ASAP, you might be able to get by if you can ensure that the heads aren't warped in any way. For me to ensure that, I would put it on a flat surface like a mill table and use an indicator to make sure there wasn't any warp.

 

[cstephens93]

I'd resurface as well

 

[mechman3]

When heads are off thats the time. Wont hurt to surface them and then you know its right

 

[Jakemax04]

Most machine shops ought to be capable of that right?