Head Gaskets and Upgrades

[owntheroad]

Hey guys,

Been seeing an intermittent hard rad hose lately in the mornings on my 2010 LMM. I’m thinking I need to start planning on doing the head gaskets. I’ll be doing the work myself. Question I have is, do you guys think it would be head gaskets for sure? It doesn’t always have a firm hose, but seems to be more common when the truck was worked harder or driven harder the previous day.

Also, since I’m diving deep into it, what other mods and/or upgrades would you guys recommend while I have everything apart. Also, any repairs or replacements to make while I’m in there?

Thanks everyone.

 

[08lmm72mm]

Hey guys,

Been seeing an intermittent hard rad hose lately in the mornings on my 2010 LMM. I’m thinking I need to start planning on doing the head gaskets. I’ll be doing the work myself. Question I have is, do you guys think it would be head gaskets for sure? It doesn’t always have a firm hose, but seems to be more common when the truck was worked harder or driven harder the previous day.

Also, since I’m diving deep into it, what other mods and/or upgrades would you guys recommend while I have everything apart. Also, any repairs or replacements to make while I’m in there?

Thanks everyone.

Is your coolant level dropping at all?

 

[Bdsankey]

Hey guys,

Been seeing an intermittent hard rad hose lately in the mornings on my 2010 LMM. I’m thinking I need to start planning on doing the head gaskets. I’ll be doing the work myself. Question I have is, do you guys think it would be head gaskets for sure? It doesn’t always have a firm hose, but seems to be more common when the truck was worked harder or driven harder the previous day.

Also, since I’m diving deep into it, what other mods and/or upgrades would you guys recommend while I have everything apart. Also, any repairs or replacements to make while I’m in there?

Thanks everyone.

If the radiator hose is hard in the morning after the truck has sat all night 99.999% chance its head gaskets as that is one of the biggest "tell tale" signs. If you're doing it just use a quality gasket (Mahle wave stopper are the best IMO), choose a fastener (you don't need head studs but not a bad place to upgrade), and MAKE SURE you have the heads gone through (pressure tested, flattened, valve recession checked/set, spring height checked/set, valve guides/seats gone through etc).

 

[Dozerboy]

My truck did the same thing and had bad HGs. I did Verify it wasn’t the EGR.I did verify it wasn’t the EGR. I still put 15k on it after it started that and 5k of that was towing 10k in the Rocky Mountains for vacation. I just ran my coolant a little low and gently bleed off the pressure every night, so it didn’t sit like that over night.

Mods just depend on where you plan going with your truck performance wise. I have a little build thread with what I did. 75% of it was more “cosmetic”.