Well, it finally happened at 65k miles. It wasnt really a surprise but a little discouraged nonetheless. It happened in a bad place so i couldnt fix it on the fly. I usually run my MM on ATT Hot **** timing at 5 so there is no "how did this happen" coming out of my mouth. Although when towing, i turn it down to mild.
625's are still on backorder so i got the 425's which should be suffcient. Im kicking around getting bigger sticks and maybe a 66 spectre turbo so i can keep the exhaust brake. The turbo will help keep the drive pressure down.
Im gonna tackle it myself as im mechanically inclined so we will see how it goes over the weekend and next week.

 

Good luck with getting it replaced. If you dont go above and beyond the mods you have, 425's will be just fine. If you think you may, look into oringing your head.

 

my truck stopped acting up and blowing coolant into reservoir. I drove for a few hundred miles without heating up or using coolant. My truck was empty and i drove it on no power so i suspect when the engine is really working it was blowing coolant and may have done so for some time. After pulling engine apart i dissasembled the head gasket for inspection and here is what i found. Looks like ring separation, erosion of rings, and missing sections of rings. This is looking at the underside of the top layer of the head gasket

between cyl 1 and 2. ring separation



between cyl 2 and 3. ring separation and partially gone



between cyl 3 and 4. ring separation only



between cyl 4 and 5. ring separation, eroded rings, and missing rings



between cyl 5 and 6. ring separation and erosion




It is safe to assume that this all didnt happen at once and seems it happened progressively . Had i not pulled my trailer last week i may not have noticed any issues for some time. Im sure teh 425's i ordered will help keep the head down.

 

I'd call ARP and ask them what the max torque is on the 425's and run them at max. If you do that, you should be fine for a long time.

 

I'm supprised you can't get ARP625's, I have two sets that I'm sitting on.

I personally would back the timing back to stock setting or run a thicker head gasket.

You have any pictures of the head deck surface?

Best of luck with your repair.

 

i have heard several torque amounts for the 425's and i think ill go with 130 to 135. I am definately gonna take timing back down to stock on HS which is "3" I am willing to bet that this timing had a huge factor with this.
I think some places had 625's in stock but wanted alot more for them. I think the 425's will work fine for me. gettign the head checked this morning, hope not much has to come off.

 

I dropped off the head at a machine shop this morning. I didnt take a pic but awaiting the results of the flux and go from there. Ill get a pic of that later this week.
update - head had no cracks which is good and only .005 had to be taken off.

 

djcheez, How you planning on dressing the block surface? 3m makes some cool gasket remover attachments for your die grinder.
They sell roloc bristle 1-3in attactments, makes block clean-up quick and easy. Becarefull the coarse 3m grinder buffing pad might damage deck surface

 

I was actually looking at that or some scotch brite similar discs but havent decided. studs, gasket and extra ultra lube came in today so looks like ill get started tomorrow evening with cleaning the block (havent yet) and setting the head on

 

Pics pics pics.

I didnt get to do my own, as bad as I wanted to screw something up in there, and ergo, didnt get any pics.

 

ive got lots of pics to help ensure i get everything back right. i ended up using a knife sharpening stone to clean the block. I got some of those roloc bruxhes but didnt trust my skills to do it right. The knife sharpening stone worked great for cleaning up. It was about 8inches long

 

work completed. Drove this week and no issues so i must have put it back together correctly. I have to say it took me a long time but if i were to do it again, i could zip right through it.

 

Good to hear you got it back together.

I wanted to do mine, but being off only on Sundays, with traveling back and forth from Houston area to home, that just wasn't happening.