Pertura
New member
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2009
- Messages
- 13
So, I blew a headgasket a while ago, it started pouring coolant out right above the oil cooler. I got the head decked and o-ring grooves made, grooves were bit wider than I wanted. I ended up using 1,10mm (.043") wire in 0,75mm (.029") deep groove, leaving me with 0,35mm (.014") of protrusion. Protrusion is a bit on the high side, but I believe that is still acceptable?
The head dropped in smoothly, I torqued it down to 130 ft-lbs in five steps, using the Cummins torque sequence. I let it sit for couple of hours before pouring coolant in, after that I put the Eberspächer (or Espar) on to circulate the coolant and to get the air out, then I plugged the block heater in. Block heater was on during daytime and during nighttime it was off to create some sort of heat cycles. After couple of days I did the first retorque, everything went fine and bolts turned from 1/8 to 1/4 of a turn.
I had bought new SHCS for the install, but when ordering the bolts, I mixed up the amounts of short and mid length bolts. So I ended up with double amount of short bolts and half the amount of mid length bolts, so I used six old bolts to get the head on. I got the new bolts yesterday and went to replace the old ones, then things started to look bit weird. I removed old bolts one at a time and put new one in and torqued it to 130ft-lbs. But, every bolt had small amount of coolant in the threads and when I got to the bolts in the passenger side front, coolant started leaking. Bolts #18, #25 and #26 were the ones that created the leaks, leak stopped right after I got the bolt torqued.
Gasket is aftermarket, brand is Glaser. But I really have hard time believing that gasket could be so bad, that it would start leaking before the engine has even been running. Torque wrench was checked before the head installation, it was within 1%. Bolts are 12.9 socket head cap screws with suitable washers, the lube used is ARP Ultra Torque. Block threads were also bottom tapped and cleaned. So I'm bit confused, what could be causing the coolant leak?
The head dropped in smoothly, I torqued it down to 130 ft-lbs in five steps, using the Cummins torque sequence. I let it sit for couple of hours before pouring coolant in, after that I put the Eberspächer (or Espar) on to circulate the coolant and to get the air out, then I plugged the block heater in. Block heater was on during daytime and during nighttime it was off to create some sort of heat cycles. After couple of days I did the first retorque, everything went fine and bolts turned from 1/8 to 1/4 of a turn.
I had bought new SHCS for the install, but when ordering the bolts, I mixed up the amounts of short and mid length bolts. So I ended up with double amount of short bolts and half the amount of mid length bolts, so I used six old bolts to get the head on. I got the new bolts yesterday and went to replace the old ones, then things started to look bit weird. I removed old bolts one at a time and put new one in and torqued it to 130ft-lbs. But, every bolt had small amount of coolant in the threads and when I got to the bolts in the passenger side front, coolant started leaking. Bolts #18, #25 and #26 were the ones that created the leaks, leak stopped right after I got the bolt torqued.
Gasket is aftermarket, brand is Glaser. But I really have hard time believing that gasket could be so bad, that it would start leaking before the engine has even been running. Torque wrench was checked before the head installation, it was within 1%. Bolts are 12.9 socket head cap screws with suitable washers, the lube used is ARP Ultra Torque. Block threads were also bottom tapped and cleaned. So I'm bit confused, what could be causing the coolant leak?