My sons truck blew out the number six exhaust manifold gasket and we have pulled the whole turbo and ehxhaust manifold assembly off, along with all the hoses, belt, belt tensioner, block heater and cord. Man I hate small jobs.

Anyway, I'm going to Cummins in the morning for new gaskets and other parts. My question is do the exhaust manifold gaskets need to be installed in any particular direction like raised surface out or in or whatever?

Thanks
Joel

 

The service manual does not say anything about which direction to put them. It is steel against steel and the gasket is steel with a dimpled ridge, it should not matter. I would get the surfaces real smooth though. I run a big stone over them.

 

We've got the surfaces down to bare clean shiny metal ready for the new ones. I didn't think it made a difference since they are metal to metal but just wanted to see if anyone had any preferences for any reason. Going after all the hoses, the block heater, the belt, the idler pulley and a few other minor things while we're in there.

 

Well, $400 worth of parts later, we got almost everything back together. Tapped out the bolt holes in the head for the manifold bolts, cleaned the block heater o-ring surface to clean bare metal, and flushed some water through the block and radiator.
The new block heater went in easily, the new turbo oil drain hose went on nicely (don't use heater hose), put on a new right side battery ground cable, put the new idler pulley on with the new belt, replaced the heater hoses from the piping to the firewall, installed the turbo/exhaust manifold with new gaskets bolts and washers (metric bolts also), and replaced the little hoses at the other end of the heater hose piping.
Poured a little oil in the turbo supply opening and fired it up just for a second to make sure the belt was right.
Need the upper and lower hoses and the t-stat bypass hose which will be here first thing in the morning, put the right side battery back in, pour the coolant system full of the Cummins pre-mix, and fire it up.
All of this just to replace one little exhaust manifold gasket. Can you tell I'm in Maintenance at a nuke station?

 

Don't forget to retorque the manifold bolts after a few hundred miles.
They have a tendency to loosen.

 

Thanks, I figured that so we got it on the list of follow up items along with leak checks. That Cummins a-freeze is not cheap and I sure wouldn't want it on the ground.

 

Well, got the last three hoses on and put everything back together. Filled the coolant system with water and took it for a ride. No problems at all so far, looks good. Going to drain and fill the coolant system with the Cummins a-freeze next and that will be it.

 

Drain the radiator, pull the lower hose from the engine, make sure the rear of the truck is higher than the front. The engine leans back and all the old coolant will not drain unless the engine is tilted foreward. You won't be able to drain the heater core.

 

Yep, did that. Drained it with the truck pointed slightly down hill, then filled up the radiator and pulled it up on ramps with the high point being the radiator cap. Got near five gallons of pre-mix back in, that should be OK I think. That Cummins pre-mix is a real cool blue color too.

 

I have the stuff in mine and that is how much it holds.

 

Cool, thanks.