Damaged Head gasket

[Dishtowel]

Hey guys,

so, last trip out, the thing that I was afraid of happening happened.

I dont have a good system for controling my electric fans on my rad, I just have a plug hanging out infront of the core support. When I drive I have to plug it in, when I stop I have to unplug it. BUSH LEAGUE, i know. But I wanted to go wheeling more than I wanted to stay in the shop wireing in a switch and a relay, etc.

So, we are out wheeling haveing a good time, we stop to BS for a min. Get done talking, and start rolling down the trail. Then I notice something is not right. I glance down at my temp gauge. 240 deg! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! My rad and pump are good, but I didn't have my fans plugged in. I lept from the truck and plugged them in, and sat and idled until it cooled down to 200, then we resumed the day.

So, I developed a coolant leak from my rad tank and from a frost plug in the rear of my block (there is a reasonably steady drip of coolant coming from my bellhouseing, and my trans cooling is independent of the rad)

And even thought it was not running top notch, things got worse. Now0 the engine acts weird. It drives and is incredibly underwhelming, if I put my foot in it it revs to about 3000 and acts like it's bouncing off a rev limiter. In the shop I was under the hood and I snapped the throttle, suprise!! I have a un-noticed tiny hole in the weld on my passenger side manifold, and guess what was coming out of it?

A cloud of steam.
I just rebuild this engine this winter.... Thats what I get for a bush league fan set up...

So, I think the passenger side head gasket needs replaced. (it is kinda convient i have a tiny exhaust leak there, lol, if I didn't I would't have found that cloud!) (For those of you that dont know, the passenger side is the 'hotter' side of the 5.0L block, due to coolant flow paths)

Those of you that have done this, how long did it take you?
I have a quad to fix before harvest and once harvest starts I am booted from the shop. I would *like* to do this before harvest, but not looking good.

 

[RebelAssaultTruk]

it may be more than the gasket, i had a bad overheating problem for a while...fuckin ford dealership couldnt figure it out anymore than i could. by the time i fixed it for a little bit, i had over heated so much i had warped the heads...which when it got bad it really got bad.

i turned it over and it had a blown gasket...drove it to the dealership cuz i was under warranty still on that motor, and by the time i had gotten there my engine was about to catch fire it was so hot, both heads warped completely, blown gaskets, everything a nightmare. i brought it to the garage with smoke everywhere...

moral? dont jus write it off as a blown gasket, check your heads too...

 

[Dishtowel]

Luckly I dont think this was any where near as severe as what you described. My coolant was still flowing well, I was rolling down the trail not asking for much power, etc. I hope those things work in my favor. I dont have white coming out of the exhaust at the back, I can't tell if I'm smelling coolant because i'm burning it, or because I'm dripping it.

But, good point. How do I check heads? or do I have to bring them to a shop? Better yet, how do I check the block?

 

[RebelAssaultTruk]

well your heads would need to be brought to a shop to be microed, but look for visible signs...your gasket obviously is blown, look for cracks when you take your head off to replace your gasket. another idea is to get a laser thermometer and check your head if any particular cylinder is burning significantly hotter...it should be around same temp when its warmed up running at idle...but check all 8 banks for any big changes...

 

[bottledgt]

do a compressiontest on it also first. you may havea burnt valve or 2

 

[rangerslim]

Is there any milky on the oil dipstick? If it only ran hot that one time you might be alright...I've ran v8's hot over and over sometimes and have no damage....Heck, I ran a 302 over 20 miles at 220 degrees one time on a bad head gasket....

It'll take one night to get the head off......send it out to be checked......if it's not hurt, you can get it back, put it on in a night.........worst case scenario, down a week......

 

[D'cheat]

Changing out the head gasket takes about 4 to 5 hours. Pull the valve covers, pull the intake manifold, remove the rocker arms and pushrods Unbolt anything thats connected to the heads Yank the heads off. Clean all gasket surfaces. Replace gaskets and reverse the removal procedure. Just remember to torque them there bolts correctly and in the correct order. Otherwise you may warp the heads or not get a good seal.
Dont just replace one head gasket. You have come this far, just do the whole thing at once

 

[HoleshotKFX400]

It took me 5 hours to do from start to finish. I worked alone for everything except putting sitting the heads back on, kinda tough to line up the dowl pin when the motors in the truck. I used a little spray adhesive to hold the head gaskets in place while i mounted the heads. If you dont already have head studs i would get those too... makes putting them back on a lot easier + there stronger. I would also drain all your oil before you take them off & leave the bolt out, when you take the intake off niagra falls of antifreeze goes in the valley and down in the oil pan... took me 3 oil changes to get that trash out

When my gaskets went the coolent would shoot out of the overflow, and my rad would just bubble when you would dump on it... somehow i blew both sides with break-in time + 4 miles on the motor LOL (I didnt put them on, whoever did must have done it wrong)