LBZ: Help with head gasket or coolant problem

gaphillips75

New member
Jan 25, 2015
55
0
0
Terre Haute, Indiana
need help with a simular issue. can drive all day but then puking coolant when parked but never over heats or has temp fluctuation. also did a head gasket co2 check and showed to be good. takes a long time to come up to temp. tried bypassing egr cooler with no change. next was thinking of trying to replace t/ stats. also read one post about oil cooler plugged causing coolant to puke. but when clicking on the link it took you to a psd 6.0 sight. so not sure if this is an issue with a dmax or not. also did a head gasket co2 check and showed to be good.
 

Huffy67

New member
Dec 26, 2014
270
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Arkansas
If it pukes out the bottle I'd say it's a 99% chance it's head gaskets. They normally don't overheat or show any other symptoms. Also I believe the combustion gasses in coolant test usually does not indicate you have a head gasket problem on a duramax.


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onebaddmaxxx

Active member
Feb 22, 2009
1,212
1
38
Cecil County Md
A sniffer never works on these things

Pull your thermostats, start the truck up, fill the housing up with water and watch to see which side has air bubbles coming up from it. That's the head that's blown
 

Huffy67

New member
Dec 26, 2014
270
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Arkansas
If it were me I'd just order parts and get started and quit wasting time checking this and researching that.... Be sure to send the heads off to get checked out.


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ToyhaulerTom

Old Tom
Jan 1, 2015
58
0
6
Southern California
Well, I'm a week into my tear down and everyone who predicted "blown head gasket" go to the head of the class. The fire ring on #7 was toast in two places and it must have been pushing coolant out and into a head bolt passage as well. One bolt was really rusted. I'm using the ARP studs, and had the heads checked for flatness and pressure tested. The shop said they were .003" out of flat and they surfaced off .004". I'll be torquing the heads in the morning, and hopefully I'll be back on the road by weeks end.
 

ToyhaulerTom

Old Tom
Jan 1, 2015
58
0
6
Southern California
And, by the way, ONEBADDMAXX is right. I tried the chemical test for combustion chamber gas in the coolant. It showed NO gas, even though it looked like a coffee pot percolating. Stick the tube up the tailpipe (or where ever) and it swaps colors real fast.
 

gaphillips75

New member
Jan 25, 2015
55
0
0
Terre Haute, Indiana
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IOWA LLY

Yes, its really me
Feb 23, 2007
2,275
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I literally just got done test driving a 2006 I just got done doing head gaskets on. Just like yours, the gaskets were not obviously blown. But its all better now......

Look for a polished spot between the "fire" ring of the head gasket and a coolant port.

Like I said in another thread, the blown part of the gasket is not always obvious. ESPECIALLY on the newer design of gasket that GM switched to sometime in 2006.....
 

clrussell

pro-procrastinator
Sep 23, 2013
5,928
399
83
I literally just got done test driving a 2006 I just got done doing head gaskets on. Just like yours, the gaskets were not obviously blown. But its all better now......

Look for a polished spot between the "fire" ring of the head gasket and a coolant port.

Like I said in another thread, the blown part of the gasket is not always obvious. ESPECIALLY on the newer design of gasket that GM switched to sometime in 2006.....


This ^


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gaphillips75

New member
Jan 25, 2015
55
0
0
Terre Haute, Indiana
Update. Got my heads back from machine shop. Pressure test good. Took 10thou off. Hoping that was the problem. Also had one bent exhaust valve tip. And worn valve guides. So with surface, pressure test, 32 valve guides, one valve, and hot tank cleaning at 956.06. They are ready to go back on.

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Awenta

Active member
Sep 28, 2014
4,090
2
38
CT
Make sure they recessed the valves if they took that much off.

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motoking_1990

Active member
May 9, 2011
1,957
5
38
Terre Haute, IN
Pull the thermostats out, and start the truck with them out and the housing off. Fill the housing up with water and let it sit there and run. look for bubbles coming up. whichever side they come up from is what head gasket is blown
Excellent information!! These are the tips that people need to share.

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