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Blowing coolant out the overflow tank. Head gasket or block??

Get those batteries tested, Simone. Sounds like that's your issue.

You will likely have to crack more than one injector to bleed things out enough to start. I would loosen the nuts on as many as I could reach and crank until I could see diesel dripping from each one, then tighten them back up. Of course, if your batteries are bad, nothing you do will help. Test them first.

Oh, and you might as well do the battery-post mod while you're in there... it's free, and it is a GREAT mod for solving battery issues. http://www.dieseltowingresource.com/showthread.php?t=540

2 things to watch for:

1] As fireman mentioned above, use 2 wrenches to crack the injector lines - one on the square body of the injector, to keep it from moving, and one on the nut to loosen it. (you only need one to tighten)

2] Only crank for 30 seconds at a time. Let the starter cool off good between crankings. These babies draw a lot of amps, and you can fry things if you crank too long.

Finally, as you have had your batteries disconnected, you may notice that your glow time is almost non-existent. That should smarten up on its own after the truck has been started.
 
I did get them tested this morning & they tested ok. I cleaned up the battery terminals & it is much improved. The positive on the passenger side was the culprit I think. They still run down after about 30 seconds of cranking though. I am boosting one with my car & have a charger on the other. By the time I wait for the starter to cool they are ready for another run.

I have cracked 6 injector lines. All 4 on the drivers & the front & back on the passenger. All have fuel coming out of them. She acts like it wants to go but so far nothing.

Something I have noticed is after cranking I took the rad cap off & there was pressure there & I could hear bubbling/gurgling. Is that to be expected after draing all coolant or is that a sign of ' of my F@$%# it's still broke"?
 
Ok, if you have fuel out of those, then tighten things back up - this system won't inject unless it's tight.

Gurgles... might just be burping - getting the air out of the system. Don't sweat it yet. Start things first.

How is your glow time?
 
Glow time seems to be same as before. Approx. 10 seconds. All injector lines are tightened back up. Just went out & tried her again & she seemed to have a bit of life in her. Batteries ran down though. I think if I keep at it she will go.
 
Well I got her running. Only problem is she is pissing coolant( and I mean pissing) from somewhere above the heat shield for the starter. Can't really tell for sure exactly where. I ran her for about 1 minute & lost probably 2 liters of coolant, the upper rad hose is hard & all kinds of pressure & gurgling when I took the rad cap off. Saw some white smoke coming out of the tail pipe. Pull the dip stick & I think I can smell coolant.

Unless someone can come up with some other problem that will cause all this I would say this project has turned out to be a failure.:sad:
 
I hope this "battery problem" is not the engine attempting to hydro-lock. Good batteries should not run down in 30 seconds. I don't know what else to say.
 
Nothing would surprise me at this point. I was so upset that the wife & I went looking for a brand new one. That was depressing also. Went to Chev & Ford dealership & between the 2 spots they had 1 truck on the lot.:wtf: Got a price on a new chev 1500 gas( I know) & payment isn't too bad but it is not big enough to tow my travel trailer.:sad: 3/4 ton is way out of my price range.

From what I can tell it appears the drivers side is ok but who knows for sure. The passenger side looks like it is leaking around the same place I found alot of coolant when I took the heads off. Maybe I missed a head bolt when I was torquing them down. I find that hard to beleive because I checked them 3 -4 times to make sure all of them were tight. I followed the sequence exactly as I was supposed to, doubled checked them at 55 foot punds & found some that was a little weak so I got them up to spec, marked the bolts with red marker & tured them 90 degrees plus. Maybe I damaged the head gasket when I put the head on it. I was as gentle as I could be & it lined up with the dowels real easy. Whatever is going on it must be pretty bad. It looks like I have a sprinkler under my truck. I'm not exagerating either. Its that bad.

At this point I don't know what I am going to do. My interest in any more wrenching is pretty much zero. I guess my options are sell it as is & get nothing out of it, fix it myself( if I can), hire someone to fix it & sell it or fix it & keep it. I need to step back from this for a while so I can think clearly.
 
Take some time away from it.....what does your mechanic friend have to say about this dilema? You reused your original heads, correct?

Feel your pain, nothing worse than doing a job twice
 
I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. I know when I tell him he will be right down to see what's going on. I might hire him to to see if he can get it right. He does alot of work on the side nights & weekends. Maybe that's what I should have done in the first place. At least if I can get it fixed I will have somehting that can tow my camper, I have setup to run on veg & I know what I have got. Paying him is much cheaper then buying new.

Yes I did reuse the heads. Machine shop planed them down & said they were good to go.

I spent pretty much the whole weekend putting this SOB back togther. You would think I would be pissed but I'm not. I'm just really really upset. At least that damn thing is paid for. Makes it much easier to buy another if that's what I decide to do.
 
Hang in there man. Can you do a double/quadruple check on the heater hoses down that way?

I almost did the "Cash for Clunkers" deal on mine this week. Decided instead to hire an out of work factory trained Chevy mechanic who does side jobs from his garage. We shall see. My heads are getting tested tomorrow. Nothing obvious on the driver's side.

I am proud that you took this job on when I skirted the challenge.

Positive vibes heading your way.
 
Get back on your horse, cowboy!

Did you loosen up or mishap the rear studs past the lower intake passenger side bank where tranny dipstick bolts to? All that coolant has to be pretty obvoiud where its coming from... Heater core hoses? Quick disconnect?
 
Was the truck leaking externally before you started ? From your first post it didn't sound like it which means you caused something else. When I say "caused" I don't mean that insultingly but mean that it could be as simple as you broke the heater core where the hoses hook up at the firewall wrestling the head or forgot to put a hose back on. With that much coolant loos that quickly I would think it should be easy to find. It may be simple. Expereiinced mechaniocs forget to put things back on let alone non pros. Find where it's coming from and report back.
 
simone0414 said:
Well I got her running. Only problem is she is pissing coolant( and I mean pissing) from somewhere above the heat shield for the starter. Can't really tell for sure exactly where. I ran her for about 1 minute & lost probably 2 liters of coolant, the upper rad hose is hard & all kinds of pressure & gurgling when I took the rad cap off. Saw some white smoke coming out of the tail pipe. Pull the dip stick & I think I can smell coolant.

Unless someone can come up with some other problem that will cause all this I would say this project has turned out to be a failure.:sad:
Click to expand...
OK let's analyze this. First off if you had coolant in the oil the oil would look like peanut butter. It the oil looks like normal oil, there's no coolant in it. If you had that much leak the whole truck will smell of it. Gurgling may be normal do to air in the system. You really need to get your hands on a cooling system pressure tester and pressurize it with the truck NOT running so you can see/hear where it's going. Some white smoke may be normal since you have the heads off and most likely got coolant in the cylinders. It if doesn't clear up , well that's bad. Remember oil and water don't really mix so if in doubt drain the oil and look at it. If it's full of water start looking for an engine.
 
To be honest I haven't really determined exactly what is going on yet. I was so shocked to see that much coolant pissing out of her, combined with the white smoke, pressure in the coolant system that I pretty much shut her down & walked away & haven't looked at it since. I did check the oil on the stick & it didn't look like it had coolant in it but it sure smelled like it. I suppose though that with all the coolant that was pissing out that may be what I was smelling. I never ran her long enough to see if the white smoke would go away. Only ran it for about a minute & that was it. I guess it can't hurt to get the coolant system pressurized. My mechanic buddy can probably bring one home from work. The original leak was not external so yes I very well likely could have caused this problem somehow. I am 99% sure I followed all instructions that had been given to me regarding torquing the headbolts & I was very careful not to damage the gaskets when I put the heads back on.
Will a cracked block leak coolant that bad? Is there a frost plug in that area that I may have come out or something?While working in that area I was right under the hood kneeling in that area working. Is there something I could have kicked or damaged ?
I am trying to hope for the best but I will be completely shocked if my engine isn't f@#$%^%. I work all day tommorow so it may be friday before I can get a look at her. I will keep everyone informed of what the results are.
 
That is exactly my point, you caused this leak(which may be a good thing) so hopefully it's something stupid like a broken heater hose.Don't give up yet. I would find it highly unlikey that you could have damaged a freeze plug. If the block wasn cracked before not likely that it is now.
Again I'm not there but educated guesses:
Heater hoses
Heater core where hose hook up
Are all teh headbolts in ? IIRC the headbolts are wet so if one is missing that would do it. Checked already ?? Check again.
Looked carefully around the heads, hopefully you didn't clamp the heads down on the wiring harness or something.
Good luck
 
Ok. I have had some time to digest, reflect & regroup.
Whatever the problem is it must be pretty bad & should be pretty easy to spot.
Was talking to one of my buddies at work today about my little pissing problem. He builds performace engines for street rods, local race cars etc on the side. He knows engines like the back of his hand. Anyway told him that the drivers side head was planed down 8 thousand & the pasenger was 15 thousand. I bought gaskets that are 10 thousand thicker. He asked me if I shaved a bit off the alignment dowels in the block to compensate for how much was taken off the passeneger head. No I didn't & never would have never thought of it. He said he has seen it happen before that once a head is planned the alignment hole in the head is no longer deep enough for the dowel in the block. This will keep the head from seating to the block properly. He said sometimes you don't have to plane much off the head to cause this problem. When he told me that I remembered that when I put the drivers head on it fit very good & flat on the block but when I put the passenger head on it seemed to not fit as well. Felt like it was sitting on just a bit of any angle. It felt like I could rock it back & forth just a very little bit. I moved it around a bit & it seemed to fit a bit better but still not as good as the drivers side. For a split second I thought it was weird but I guess it didn't strike me well enough to stop and investigate.
The more I think about it there must be something in there stopping it from seating properly. Either this dowel problem or perhaps a peice of rust or a metal shaving. I have checked the heater hoses & they are fine. I am sure I put all the heads bolts in & torqued them all. I checked them over & over before I moved on. I am 99% sure that wiring harness is not caught in there.
In the morning I am going to pull the head off. I have to know. Shouldn't take too long. I know what everything is now & all bolts should start easy.

Has anyone experienced this dowel thing before? If the block was cracked would it leak this bad? Can you cause a very small crack in the block to become much worse when torquing heads down?

I only ran the engine for about 1 minute. Any chance coolant in the oil has damaged it?
 
1 Minute would not harm it but you said there was no antifreeze in the oil any way. Before you go ripping it apart did you confirm that is where it's coming from ? I suppose the dowel thing could be possible although never experiecned it personally.
 
My buddy was supposed to come down tonight to pressurize the cooling system but was a no show. I have checked everything I can see in that area & don't see anything wrong but don't know what else it would be. I think if I take the heat shield off that goes between the turbo & injectors/glowplus I can get a better look. I will do that first.
 
I have heard of this happening. 15 an 8 thou aint much especially if you used 10 tou thiicker gaskets.....but like your buddy told you sometimes it don't take much. If that is what you find when you pressure test it check the holes in the head for debris first before you grind down the pins. Just sucks it is the hard side.:mad2:
 
Just thought of something.............. When they machined your heads did machine the pre-combustion chamers (cups) off too? BTW not the right way, they should make the pockets deeper to accept the cups. If they didn't do either the cups could be bottoming out before the head makes contact. I am not sure of the clearance I think MGW(maybe someone else can't remember for sure) had it here somewhere.
 
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