I blew my head gasket today, and Im just wondering if anyone has any tips,tricks or anyother helpful information to make this project go more smoothly

Thanks
~Matt

 

It's pretty straight forward, just keep things nice, clean and organized when you take them off. Also, make sure to unplug the coolant temp sensor at the very back of the head. Do yourself a favor and just buy the upper gasket kit from Cummins, that way you'll have everything you need. Otherwise I can't think of anything else that really made it tough on mine. Just make sure you've got a cherry picker or a strong buddy to help horse that thing out of there... it's heavy!!!

 

Sweet, thanks.
Do you remember how much the gasket set was?

 

I did mine between Christmas and NewYears. You do need an engine hoist. You will need to get the head shaved. Mine required .014 to be taken off and that requires a .020 over size head gasket to replace it. I got a marine head gasket from Piers as well as all the other necessary gaskets. I also replaced the valve seals as well although they were in good shape. I have 205,000 klms on mine and there was no wear on the engine components. Valve stems and guides were still within factory specs and crosshatching was still in the cylinders. Wouldn't hurt to have the shop manual handy for torque specs etc. Not really a difficult job just awkward in some place like torquing the rear head bolts that final 90 deg turn. If you need any specs or further advise just holler.