mitch@jc'sCTD

well i was driven from a friends house to a local fuel station about 2 miles away an looked to see a puddle of antifreeze under my truck. After looking more it seems to be another headgasket blow. This is my second one in less than a year, whats worse is i havent been punchin it or running it hard im as easy on it as possible. im running a stock turbo at around 35-40 lbs of boost. and the hea was just resufaced and magnafluxed, so what could the problem be? So this makes my day my savings i had set back for a turbo are now going into a new head gasket.

kawi600

Check the heat exchanger on the passenger side of the motor, sometimes those leak

Jetpilot

Whats your timing set at? Remember its cylinder pressure that causes HG failures not boost pressure...... Thats why high boost #'s from an HX35 is much worse than the same number say from a PS or HTT turbo. I see lots of 12v trucks that loose HG's when their timing is tweaked too much.

You might consider installing headstuds for better clamping force, also I would use the marine headgasket. The cummins number for it is 3282229=.020 over, 3283337=.010 over, 3283335=stock.

Doug Smith

mitch@jc'sCTD

my timing is at 22* which i think is WAY to high but no shop around here thinks it is set to high.

Jetpilot

Thats the problem..... Set it down around 16.5* and the headgasket should live. Timing has its place but unless you are running BIG fuel and rpm there is no reason for it to be so high.

Doug

ratsun

Perhaps the shop that recommends timing that high with the insane TIP #s you have running the stock turbo and the fuel you have, should buck-up for the HG replacement. Like Jetpilot said pull back the timing until you get more turbo.

mitch@jc'sCTD

so even with the lasered DV's, 375 injectors and a 4k gsk, that timing is too high, bc in my mind that i a lot of fuel, i know its not a massive amount like wih custom injectors but is still a lot of fuel. im not trying to defend the high timing but thats jus my thoughts.

squirlchasr919

I don't think they are saying that you aren't running enough fuel, seems like you've got that covered. What they are making reference to is the lack of a turbo upgrade do deal with the extra fuel. Feel free to correct me, but I believe anything over 30-32psi is extremely inefficient for the stock turbo, it's just blowing hot air into the motor.

Jetpilot

Running a stock plate on a 180 pump is not a lot of fuel, even with the DV's and 375 injectors...... To run the timing you run have normally we are looking at a worked 215 pump or even a 13mm p&b pump, running an aggressive plate, plus big injectors. Back the timing down you will gain a lot of bottum end back and your headgaskets will live.

Doug

gman07

Just wondering, why is high TIP or drive pressure so bad for headgaskets? I'm sure there's a logical reason I'm not thinking of, just wondering what it is...

ratsun

The way I understand it is:
The higher the TIP gets the more hot gasses progressively left in the cly which is effectively acts as even more timing. Lowering TIP allows larger cool charge keeping timing in check.
Hope I explained it the way I meant it?

gman07

Gotcha. Thanks for the answer

mitch@jc'sCTD

Well 4 days ago my truck was hauled to Enterprise Engine Performance to have my work done. They were surprisingly the cheapest estimate around, my list includes fire-ring the head, studs, valve springs+retainers, and timing adjusted back down. Hope this is worth the money.