Well, I pulled back up to work and noticed coolant running out from under the back of my motor. I took it in to the dealer and the head gasket is blown. How much should this run and how hard would it be to replace it myself?

 

Not that hard to do....a lot easier if you've at least seen it done before. Other than a service manual, new gasket and a good torque wrench (if you don't have one)...all the cost is labor. It's probably a 6-8 hr job, depending on how much cleanup is needed once your in there.

Hope you didn't drive if far?

I would look into ARP studs ($400) and getting your head decked, if it's not perfectly level.

Any idea how it happened?

RJ

 

Well, I drove from my house to work which is about 4 blocks and when I got out I could hear something dripping. I looked under the truck and coolant was running out on the pavement. I then drove about two miles to the dealership. The truck never got hot and it had perfect oil pressure. I am not sure how it happened. I have no performance mods on the truck other than a bhaf and straight pipe. I guess it was just a faulty gasket. The dealership is going to contact me later today with an estimate. I would assume that it is covered under the 100k warranty.

 

It should be covered by waranty...than why do it yourself?

RJ

 

I was just asking because it is going to take them a week

 

I am doing one right now, and it is costing a bit. Of course I found cracks in my head that someone tried to repair so I ordered a recon from cummins. Which the recon head was much stronger cast than the head I had, weighed at least 30 lbs more than mine-was impressed with it. Decided to install gagues at the same time, also took the injectors to get checked-they were week, so I got some new ones, the 277 I think (30hp). I also have the famous "53" block, which hasn't crack with almost 300K hard towing miles on it-so I priced out a new block from cummins, not as much as I expected-so that is the rute I will be going.

To sum it all up. Take it to the dealer, will be cheeper-of course they will let things go that I won't. Good luck

 

You will upset some of the people here if you keep on calling it a Cummings. It is actually a Cummins.

 

opps dawrn spell check

 

If your not runnining alot of boost I would skip the studs as that is a lot more work (unless hvy mods are in the mail)....BUT BUY all means replace all the head bolts.dont measure them.Just trash them.