Defective Head Gasket from Day One?

[SDWA]

Ok... if you've read my story at all, first I had coolant pukage, blamed on 5 leaking injector sleeves, after an injector replacement. "Wait, that sounds like a couple people's stories!" you say...

http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/tdpforum/showthread.php?t=27906

5 weeks later I had my truck back. 500 miles after that, it went back in for the exact same problem. This time, they found the head gasket was leaking (after ignoring advice from TAC the first time it was in for the sleeves).

This is what the gasket looked like:

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd172/sddweb/LHGFront3Closeup.jpg?t=1191018658
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd172/sddweb/LHGFront2.jpg?t=1191018998
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd172/sddweb/LHGCloseUp1.jpg?t=1191019117
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd172/sddweb/LHGBackside1.jpg?t=1191019154

There's a "flat" spot on the inner edge - that if you look closely, you can tell has been there since day one; there's no wear or compression on the part that is inside the cylinder area, and there is corresponding wear that matches the diameter of the cylinder (and a line of carbon deposit) on the remaining surface. Somewhere along the line of assembly that inner seal lip got pushed in, and that cylinder never got sealed - and it's taken this long for the leak to progress to the coolant pukage stage. So 11 weeks in the shop total and $5100 later, it's supposedly fixed.

Dealership saw the oddity, told GM - GM said because of the mileage (136,000) they didn't even want to look at it - "it's out of warranty" they say.

I've got a call into GM customer service, and they are going to get back to me next week...

Anyone ever seen a gasket come out like this before? The repairing dealership says this is the first one they've seen.

Is it too far fetched to think that a head gasket leak into the cooling system could have caused the injector sleeves seals to fail?

[Mark Rinker]

Was this engine ever turned up - either fuel rates, boost levels, or both? Maybe by a previous owner?

If not - I would pursue your claim and expect some participation from GM in the repair - at least covering half. I would beat the drum of "...this is a bone stock, un-modified truck barely out of warranty..."

If it has been - I'd consider it a lesson learned and move on. I did with my 2001 that was turned up and propane injected.

[SDWA]

Was this engine ever turned up - either fuel rates, boost levels, or both? Maybe by a previous owner?

If not - I would pursue your claim and expect some participation from GM in the repair - at least covering half. I would beat the drum of "...this is a bone stock, un-modified truck barely out of warranty..."

If it has been - I'd consider it a lesson learned and move on. I did with my 2001 that was turned up and propane injected.

I'm the original owner, and it's never had anything done to it - it's been pure stock from the day I bought it. Not even oversized tires! I have meticulously maintained it, and have all records and receipts.

[Mark Rinker]

Were there any symptoms or related dealer repair visits prior to the truck turning over 100K miles?

[SDWA]

No, nothing significant... although for as long as I can remember, I always had bubbles appear in the reservoir tank from the return hose, and always had a significant amount of pressure on the system if I loosened the cap - not a slight quick hiss, but more like a minute-long, slow unscrew-stop-unscrew-stop release method, otherwise it would overflow the coolant.

Scott

[More Power]

The aluminum head deck should show a fire-ring impression. If there's no impression whatsoever in the area where the damaged gasket was, then the gasket was damaged before or during assembly at the DMAX plant.

Jim

[SDWA]

That'd have been nice to know what to look for... if they had bothered to look for it or document it. But since GM said no dice on the coverage, they just put it back together.

Of course, I didn't find out about it myself until I picked the truck up, looked at the gasket and asked if they noticed it.

Scott