Alright, been doing some reading. How important are head studs and should I go with a stock gasket, Cometic (w/o studs, can only afford so much right now), or Marine (and .010 over, or .020 over)? This is for the 97' BTW.

Is this something I can do myself? I have limited air tools, and might be able to get a garage thats heated since here in Buffalo its getting cold. I've installed turbo's and manifolds, and so on, but won't do a clutch or stuff like that. And I hear this thing is heavy...like 120LBS heavy, I don't have an engine hoist.

So if I buy the parts, how long would it take a shop to install this stuff, head gasket, and head gasket and studs? I'm only a few minutes from Cummins North East, but they charge $85/hour labor rate. Has anyone dealt with Country Diesel in Marilla, NY? or any D&W shop for that matter? I'm just looking for a reasonable shop to do the work.

One more thing, how much will a machine shop charge to deck the head?

-Matt

 

I took my dear sweet time drinking beer and losing tools yesterday and had the head off in about 3.5 hours. I only used an impact of the head bolts that were accesible. The rest of the time was pure manual labor. I don't have an engine hoist either, but got rather frisky with a hammer, knocked two holes in the ceiling of the shop and chained an I beam between the two holes. I used a come-a-long and a couple of 1.5" ratchet straps to get the head off the block.

A shop was going to charge me 100 bucks to mill mine. If i wanted the head completely re-worked, it was going to be $500. (I assume re-work is new seals, guides, and seats)

Swung the head high enough to rest on the rad. support, then rested it on the brush guard, then toted it to the back of a pickup.

 

my shop said around 6 hours and a total of $725 with new bolts and a cummins "updated" gasket. I decided to do it myself since I don't even have the $300 in parts but a friend will help me out with some cash.

 

Well D&W out here in NY wanted a little over a grand to do it... I think I'll shop around if thats the price you got. It'll have to wait until next week, I just started roughing a new house and I kinda need the truck to get in and out of the slop until the gravel gets delivered.

Let me know how it goes for ya and maybe I'll end up doing mine myself.