Head Gasket Job

Belldiver

New member
Dec 11, 2013
53
0
0
Louisiana
ARP studs

I know the 100% correct thing to do here would be just pull every piston, and replace rings and rod bearings. Probably adding about $500 to the project. My problem with that now would be (other than the $500), is that I've already torqued the Passenger Head on to the ARP studs, not realizing this would progress this far. If I pull that head back off, for sure I'd have to replace that head gasket.

Would y'all re-use those ARP studs? They were properly torqued with the ARP lube, but they did get stretched. Just the motor never ran and heated.

I'm still leaning towards slapping this thing back together after the quick deglaze and re-ring of the D-1 piston. All the other cylinder walls looked perfect. Not sure why this one piston broke an oiler ring.

Can I slap that single rod bearing back in used? Or replace it? Not worried about the cost of a single bearing, more just what would be better for the engine.

Does anyone sell a single piston ring set? I usually only see full sets.

I wish I'd started this project with a full rebuild in mind. Grrrr....

Jim
 

JoshH

Daggum farm truck
Staff member
Vendor/Sponsor
Feb 14, 2007
13,704
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Texas!!!
I know the 100% correct thing to do here would be just pull every piston, and replace rings and rod bearings. Probably adding about $500 to the project. My problem with that now would be (other than the $500), is that I've already torqued the Passenger Head on to the ARP studs, not realizing this would progress this far. If I pull that head back off, for sure I'd have to replace that head gasket.

Would y'all re-use those ARP studs? They were properly torqued with the ARP lube, but they did get stretched. Just the motor never ran and heated.

I'm still leaning towards slapping this thing back together after the quick deglaze and re-ring of the D-1 piston. All the other cylinder walls looked perfect. Not sure why this one piston broke an oiler ring.

Can I slap that single rod bearing back in used? Or replace it? Not worried about the cost of a single bearing, more just what would be better for the engine.

Does anyone sell a single piston ring set? I usually only see full sets.

I wish I'd started this project with a full rebuild in mind. Grrrr....

Jim

I don't see anything wrong with the plan you have going right now. I'd just make sure I used new rod bolts on that one you pulled out.
 

Belldiver

New member
Dec 11, 2013
53
0
0
Louisiana
DeGlaze

I deglazed/lightly honed the D-1 cylinder this morning. Some moderate improvement. Not perfect for sure. Some of the scores all but disappeared and the deep ones I can just barely feel now. I think I'm going to go with it.

Before:
picture.php


After:
picture.php

I'm afraid to go crazy with the hone and take too much material off. I just don't think I'll get the deep ones all the way out.

Jim
 

Belldiver

New member
Dec 11, 2013
53
0
0
Louisiana
Engine is all put together and going back in the truck this afternoon.

My only partial worry, is that I kept the injectors clean enough when they were out. I scrubbed them off good with clean solvent, always holding them upside down. I'm sure the actual intake sides are very clean with no gunk inside, but on the return flow side where the little plastic nipples push into, there was a fair amount of rust up around the tops just below where the little clips go. I spun some bronze .22 and .30 cal rifle bore brushes in there (while upside down) and think I got most of it out, but am worried there could be a few bits of rust that got pushed down when I snapped the return lines into them.

Question. Where does the fuel go from those flexible return lines? Does it get filtered again somewhere before running through the CP3 and right back into the upstream high pressure side of the injectors?

If not, on initial start up, could I disconnect that flexible hose from the barbed fitting and let it purge for 10 seconds or so to make sure I catch any small residue that might come out of the return side, before connecting back to the fuel manifold?

I know all the hard piped injector lines are high pressure, but these have to be low pressure lines. I'm guessing they get cycled back to the low pressure half of the CP3 to get boosted up again.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Jim
 

02greysixer

Active member
Jun 4, 2011
1,829
7
38
North Central FL
I believe injector returns converge with the cp3 return on the drivers side and it all gets sent back to the tank. So you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
 

Belldiver

New member
Dec 11, 2013
53
0
0
Louisiana
Good news!

Truck fired up with minimal problems. Took about two minutes of cranking to prime the injectors and she fired right off.

The only 'Oh shit' moment was on the first test drive on open road where I could mash the pedal a little. I didn't tighten one of the band clamps on the silicone flex hoses going to the turbo intercooler. When the boost kicked in, it blew the hose off with a big bang and a puff of black smoke out the exhaust, then limped home. Once I found the problem and tightened it back up, it ran like a champ.

Thanks for all the help and advice guys!

Jim
 

o4dirtymax

Member
Dec 17, 2012
86
0
6
CA
Jim,

I'm about to start a head gasket job on my LLY too, a lot of good information in this thread I'm going to use. Thanks for that.

Also, going back to your first page i saw you say you work down in the Gulf on a ship; what company do you work for? I just had an interview with Hornbeck Offshore and Transocean
 

Kappa9012

MAN.... I Broke it again.
Aug 5, 2008
694
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Peoria Il
I was always taught not to do bearings on one journal only, if you do one do them all or none at all. But that just my opinion.

I agree 100%, but I usually catch hell from dealers/customers because "the other cylinders really aren't that bad..."
 

Belldiver

New member
Dec 11, 2013
53
0
0
Louisiana
I agree 100%, but I usually catch hell from dealers/customers because "the other cylinders really aren't that bad..."

If I hadn't already torqued the other head on before finding that cylinder scoring I would have changed all of them. It was just dumb luck that the only scored cylinder had it's piston near TDC. All of the others looked pristine so I never went about rotating the crank until just before installing the other head.

It is what it is now though. If I have to pull it again in 50,000 miles, I'll rebuild the whole thing. I may end up with this rig one of these days, and if I do it'll get some performance upgrades.

Thanks for all the tips.

Jim
 

Belldiver

New member
Dec 11, 2013
53
0
0
Louisiana
Jim,

I'm about to start a head gasket job on my LLY too, a lot of good information in this thread I'm going to use. Thanks for that.

Also, going back to your first page i saw you say you work down in the Gulf on a ship; what company do you work for? I just had an interview with Hornbeck Offshore and Transocean

I work for a company called Cal Dive. Like the name and my login here suggests, we're a commercial diving company that supports the oilfield. I work on a 4-point anchor boat with a Saturation diving system. We're almost always hiring vessel crew, but dive boats tend to be old scows because we do construction work and beat them up. The supply boat companies in the next paragraph typically run nice big beautiful ships supplying the deep water oilfield.

Hornbeck Offshore (HOS) is a big supply boat company with a large fleet of nice ships. I think TransOcean is more of a drilling company, but probably owns or leases alot of big ships too. You might also want to check out Edison Chouest Offshore and Harvey Gulf. Chouest probably has the largest fleet of world class workboats in the Gulf of Mexico.

What license are you running? I could probably ask our bridge crew if they know who's hiring down here now.

Jim
 

JDT4430

Member
Jul 29, 2014
75
0
6
Just wondering if there is any tricks to removing the intakes from the heads. Would using a heat gun soften the silacon or do you think thats just asking for prolems?