Melting Heads

[Tsckey]

I was over at the Open Road forum checking out some stuff on trailers and towing and checked in on the "Tow Vehicle" site. The Duramax owners were typically happy as clams, but there were the few who felt compelled to warn of the perils of mixing aluminum and cast iron. I know we've been over and over this, but now in our third year of production are there yet any CREDIBLE reports of head gasket failures? I have read of one report by a Ford owner whose engine blew a head gasket because of warped head and I have personal knowledge of another involving a pre-PSD Ford. But, I don't know of any Duramaxes. Unless...wait a minute while I go outside and check.

[Paintdude]

It happens at times with all vehicles, no matter what brand or type,gas or diesel, even motorcycles,My motorcycle has a alum block with cast iron sleeves and alum head 12.5:1 comp..23,000 miles and no problems....

[Cobra-R]

What they are probly referring to when they talk about mixing aluminum and steel on trailers is you can get reaction to the aluminum from it being in contact with steel over time. Remember, there is a head gasket seperating the head from the block on engines, so there for the most part is not contact.
The main question with engines is, with the two different metals they will expand and contract at different rates as the engine temperature fluctuates. Mixing the two seems to be a pretty common practice these days (in gas engines anyway) so I wouldn't worry to much about it. smile.gif

Brian

[hoot]

The headgaskets used on the Duramax are comprised of a stack of this stainless steel sheets. Not only do they isolate the aluminum from the cast iron to eliminate galvonic corrosion but they allow the head and block to float.

[Maverick]

I've had both head gaskets replaced on my Duramax and personally know of about 6 (including me)others that have also. Seems to be a rare thing. My heads were professionally checked and turned out OK and so were reinstalled. Don't know of any actual head failures....just gaskets.

[ 01-11-2003: Message edited by: Maverick ]</p>

[hoot]

Maverick,

I'm wondering if head gasket failure rate might be higher in the colder climates like Alaska due to the extreme cold temps. The temp swing is much greater than in the trucks in the lower states. Could be more gasket "sliding" that is causing the premature failures.

Are any of the others you know of also from cold climates like yours?

[Maverick]

Hoot,
Don't think climate is a problem. I will say the six I know of are nation wide and not limited to Alaska only. Three of which are on this board and I got 2 emails from unregistered owners experiencing my same problems and wanted my feedback. Not to bad out of a 3 year run of engines I think.

[SID6FIVE]

Hey folks-
I've only changed out two headgaskets-one on a high-mile tow truck (leaking compression into cooling system),the other on a high-mile sevice truck (leaking coolant externally).I did have a customer who had one headgasket replaced recently for external coolant leakage (work done elsewhere).I would say headgasket failure is a relatively rare problem for the DMAX.I have one buddy who has towed (car hauler) with his '01 now for over 75k miles-with no problems whatsoever.Whereas I just replaced the RH headgasket in my 454 dually-grrr.

[hoot]

So it looks as though it's no more a problem than it it is on any engine.

Sometimes things aren't just right. Maybe a bad gasket from new or installation issue. Who knows but it certainly is nice to know it never became an issue.

[More Power]

I visited our local GMC dealer the other day (to get info on their extended warranty plan - for a future article here in TDP), and talked to them about their Duramax service history.

The cylinder head removal (the one photographed for the "Injector Cup Seal" story) remains the only instance of cylinder head removal they've dealt with thus far. There have been no other head or head gasket problems.

MP

[ 01-12-2003: Message edited by: More Power ]</p>

[SteveO]

I guess I can chime in a litle too..

I frequent a few dealerships here in NC..

Out of those, I know of only 1 head that has been removed.. It was this past Nov on a C5500 (Belongs to the Cat Distributer smile.gif ).
One of the cam followers broke a retainer so the follower started rotating which as you may know DMax's have Roller Lifters (Followers, Tappets) the cam ended up getting messed up and had to be replaced and to pull the bad follower out; you guessed it, the head had to come off.. I must say the 4500/5500s look like a nightmare to work on, but after removing a few big pieces they are not bad.......

BTW: 57K and I run the Heck out of it.. No Head problems...