Coolant pressurizing in overflow tank

holsky

holsky

New member
Truck is an 05 with normal exhaust, intake, and edge juice. I don't know how many miles are on it, I would say it can't be any more then 100-120K.

I need some input and guidance on this truck, it's pressurizing and puking coolant out the over flow tank., only when towing. He took it to the stealership and they pressurized the system and found no leaks. They replaced the over flow cap, thermostats.

Now my question is and I've read else where that it could be the egr cooler, injector cups, or head gaskets. What is there to check before going and dumping a sh!t load of money into?

I don't know squat about these Duramax's :doh:, just trying to help out a buddy.

I thought we could easily do a egr delete and throw efi live on it and see what happens but I just hate for him to throw money at it if that's not the problem

Thanks,
Austin
 
blown headgaskets I guarantee it. Time to pull the motor and have the heads resurfaced and add some studs.
 
Howling said:
blown headgaskets I guarantee it. Time to pull the motor and have the heads resurfaced and add some studs.
Click to expand...

X2 same thing happened to my brother when he blew his on his 12v. Obviously totally dif animal but same concept.
 
Egr cooler failure is not common on duramax motors. The 05 doesn't have cups, injecters don't pass through coolant passages on lly and newer motors. For whatever reason, lly are more prone to hg probes. The symptoms you describe are exactly what mine did when I popped the hg's.
 
Dealing with this now as well after owning this truck for about two weeks.. Starting with thermostat, and cap but expecting the worst case scenerio..
 
Most of the EGR delete's on a D-max are just a small blocker plate with will not solve a EGR coolant leak problem nor will adding EFI Live. Start with some basic check out. Remove the glow plugs with the coolant system under pressure. HAve someone turn the engine over with two people watching the glow plug holes. If you see water coming from a glow plug hole you located the problem one. Most of the time on a LLY it is head gaskets but I have seen cracked heads as well on a few. If cracked it's typically in the exhaust port to the coolant jacket.
 
I'd put my money on blown headgaskets. The LLYs and LB7s have the early gasket design. The LLYs seem to be more prone to failure, probably because of the VGT and extra horsepower equate to increased cylinder pressure throughout the RPM range. Seems like LB7s with canned tuners are almost as bad as LLYs. EGR coolers rupturing in these trucks is VERY uncommon. I can't think of ever even hearing about one.
 
Howling said:
blown headgaskets I guarantee it. Time to pull the motor and have the heads resurfaced and add some studs.
Click to expand...

Why would you pull the motor? I would also bet that if the truck in question is only puking during towing and not puking all the time yet, the heads will not need to be resurfaced if they get after this quick.
 
1pieceatatime. said:
Why would you pull the motor? I would also bet that if the truck in question is only puking during towing and not puking all the time yet, the heads will not need to be resurfaced if they get after this quick.
Click to expand...

I appreciate all of the help guys!

And rob, yes this issue is going to be resolved quick. The good thing is he has a company truck and 70% of the time this truck is parked in the garage.

I'm going to relay him the bad news, and tell him it's 99% the head gaskets and I'll tell him about checking the glow plugs and see if you can see water through the hole.

Thanks again, :Cheer:
Austin
 
I would much rather pull the heads and install the studs with the motor out than in. If you're not going to resurface the heads at least check for straightness. It's not something you want to do twice.
 
I would put money on it being headgaskets as well, and that's what I told a friend when his was pressuring and losing coolant when towing. He tore it down and both heads were cracked around the injector bores, so he had to get new heads. Its rare but becoming increasingly common.
 
Howling said:
I would much rather pull the heads and install the studs with the motor out than in. If you're not going to resurface the heads at least check for straightness. It's not something you want to do twice.
Click to expand...

Maybe out west where everything is clean and rust free, the extra work is worth the aggravation of pulling the motor. Here in the rust belt, the more unnecessary stuff you take apart, the more broken bolts/ruptured lines you are asking for.

I would definitely have the heads checked. They usually are straight, out of a dozen+ trucks that my buddy and another guy, and my buddy and me have done there hasn't been a warped head yet. The decking is to alleviate the marks in the combustion area from the failed gasket protruding into the cylinder a bit.
 
Let's just say we have done a little more than a dozen and we are far from the rust belt. (Northern Illinois) The only broken items I've in countered is a few glow plugs and a dry rotted fuel line but I would rather find that sooner than later.You do things your way and I'll do mine my way . Get the heads surfaced order thicker gaskets from GM and add head studs. Just giving some pointers to the OP.
 
Howling said:
Let's just say we have done a little more than a dozen and we are far from the rust belt. (Northern Illinois) The only broken items I've in countered is a few glow plugs and a dry rotted fuel line but I would rather find that sooner than later.You do things your way and I'll do mine my way . Get the heads surfaced order thicker gaskets from GM and add head studs. Just giving some pointers to the OP.
Click to expand...


That was my point. Guys want to pop cabs and pull motors thats fine in some cases. But I don't think telling someone to heed rusty parts when considering doing extra work to make the job easier is bad advice.

I dont care if you have done 500 of these. Why would you cut a head that doesn't need to be cut? I'm all for studs, grade Cs and sending the heads out out for a full treatment, but why take material off if you don't have to?
 
I'd put my money on headgaskets as well! It will probably be pushed out around the cylinder! All the headgaskets I've done the heads needed material taken off according to my machine shop.. Grade c gaskets, ARP studs, and upper engine gasket set isn't too much! I don't pull the motor or the cab, I don't have much of an issue doing it on my topside creeper and through the fender wells! Be careful pulling the glow plugs
 
wonder if you could leave the plugs in and let the machine shop have the liberty of pulling them out? that way if they broke it would be cake walk for them to get it out?
 
Map gas torch, CRC freeze spray and a impact takes the glow plugs out without breaking them......usually. If they do break, I use more heat and more spray with a stud puller. Just did 6 broken ones AFTER a customer tried doing them himself.
 
matty169 said:
Map gas torch, CRC freeze spray and a impact takes the glow plugs out without breaking them......usually. If they do break, I use more heat and more spray with a stud puller. Just did 6 broken ones AFTER a customer tried doing them himself.
Click to expand...


In my experience, when they break I pull the electrode out, fill the inside of the plug with weld ( VERY carefully), weld a nut on top. Let it cool and they usually come right out. Kind of the same concept as running a pass of weld around a bearing race. There are a couple shops that don't even screw with them, they just bring me the head. Including the machine shop I use for head work.
 
Ya it doesn't seem like it would be all that helpful to push the plugs out from the bottom of the head cause they come through at an angle, anybody tried that? I drilled and tapped the inside of one plug and threaded all thread into it and ran a nut with a washer down the thread pressing on the head and STILL couldn't get it out, so I bolted a slide hammer on the all thread while I left the tension of the nut pushing against the head, and started the truck so I had compression pushing for me also! And it STILL wouldn't come out! Yep it's still in that head to this day! I couldn't believe it! It wil come out when I do headgaskets on the truck someday lol for now just disabled that plug code with EFI... The customer didn't have the money to have me pull the head
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top