Bad head?

[mudnutt]

As in another post of mine i thought i had a head gasket going bad. I pulled all the glow plugs out and had antifreeze in # 7. I got the head off this morning( no small feat with no air tool and doing the work in my apartment building parking space in 30 degree or colder weather) and the gasket was indeed bad on #7.
(http://community.webshots.com/photo/2885028700085310963Buydan)
I also found cracks in the pre-cups.
[IMG]http://thumb3.webshots.com/t/58/158/6/62/37/2544662370085310963QqJBBe_th.jpg (http://community.webshots.com/photo/2544662370085310963QqJBBe)
And as you can see it looks as though a glow plug tip possibly (or some other foriegn material ) found its way into the chamber. So i guess my question is does anybody think that this head is usable or would i be better off with another? Also, is it common for the pre-cups to crack like that?

[john8662]

Yeah, you found the source of the compression leaking into the cooling system.

I'm not too confident in the other cylinder image you posted. To me there looks to be a crack coming from the exhaust valve (smaller valve) heading towards the bottom of the cylinder.

The pitting could also be from coolant being in the cylinder. I don't think that I'd want to use this head.

Take a scotch pad and rough up the surface on that cylinder to get a better look at what you have, it may look better once cleanced up.

[mudnutt]

the pic of the pitted chamber is of #3. When i pulled the glow plugs no coolant came out of that chamber and when i pulled the head there was no coolant in there either. the #3 piston looks fine. #7 was where the coolant was.

[mudnutt]

the link i posted is of the head with the gasket still on just after i took it off. you can see where the gasket went bad right next to #7. Sorry for the link and the attatchment. Im still learning this picture stuff

[mudnutt]

Got the pass side head off just as it was getting dark last night. Coolant in #6 and #8. Was to dark to realy inspect them so i'll have to do that today.

[john8662]

Good thing you're pulling the both, if one head blew the gasket, then the other side is usually not too much further off.

Keep us posted!

[bbudus]

I had to replace my heads when I put in my new engine, there are all kinds of different heads out there so make sure you get a matching pair. It has to do with the angle the injectors sit or some such nonsense. Because of the war it took a small miracle for me to find them, but I finally did in some outfit out of Denver.

Good luck,

Bbudus

[mudnutt]

I bought this truck from a dealer a little less than 2 months ago. I bought it as is but im going to call him tommorrow and see if i can get them to help me out with it at all. I was going to pull the pan this morning to check for cracks in the webs but its snowing right now. Not having a garage sucks