head gasket availablity

[DFDureiko]

I was heading out to Montanna, to an Airstream Rally, arrived at an overnight stop in Limestone, PA. Low Coolant light had come on 1/2way, then again just before arriving. GMC dealer in New Bethlehem PA, said bad head gasket. so.
I'm lucky I guess I'm stuck at an Airstream Park, among "friends" BUT.
they got the truck 1 week ago and the parts still are not in? A WEEK? for a head gasket?, there are so many Duramax'es out on the road, I find it somewhat hard to believe. On the surface this appears to be a very very honest small town dealership.
They said they had to order it from GM then GM had to order it from Isuzu.
this 2001 has 72,000 on it, but had an overheat last summer in the mountains of NC.
an injector went in Perry GA in June. they fixed it, but in so doing, had to take out some hoses, did not put back tightly enough and going up a mountain, I blew a hose and all the coolant. I'm assuming this overheat led to the failed head gasket, I pulle off the road as soon as I could but I don't think it was soon enough.
Opinions?
Dan
Straded at PennWood Airstream Park in Limestone PA.:)

[Mark Rinker]

Sorry to hear of your down time. You are expecting repairs and parts should be covered under warranty, correct? What is the in-service date of your truck?

Also, did they replace one injector, 4 (one side) or all 8?

2001 model years are know to have a moderate level of head gasket failures. Probably would have happened, regardless of the overheat issue.

[DmaxMaverick]

......2001 model years are know to have a moderate level of head gasket failures. Probably would have happened, regardless of the overheat issue.

Really? When? Where? I've heard of a few, but no where near what I'd consider considerable. Occasional or infrequent, perhaps. But not "a moderate level". All things considered, probably happens less than it should, or could.

[tx dave]

Hey Guys, I Just Wanted To Respond. I Posted On May 01, About My Water Pump Causing Bubbles In My 01 System. Since Then I've Put About 3k On The Truck, About Half Pulling A 5th Wheel And A Horse Trailer And Still No Problems. I Was Told My Troubles Were Head Gaskets. If It Were Me I Would Make Sure The Systems Was Hydro Carbon Tested. I Do Get The Acceleration Surges From The Fpr And Ses Code But It's Done That Since New.

[Mark Rinker]

Considerable? Moderate? Infrequent? Occasional? How about this irrefutable statement...

"Some percentage of 2001's Duramax trucks will puke head gaskets. That percentage will be higher than subsequent model years, when the gasket material was improved."

This is no new news.

My '01 developed a head gasket leak. (The truck had been turned up significantly and pulled hard - I didn't look for any remedy from GM.) I personally know of two other '01s with the same issue. An industry guru and advertiser on this board is of the opinion that '01s are 'prone' to head gasket problems - his word of choice. My GM tech once said "....he has only done head gaskets on '01s so far."

Occasional might have been a better word, based on my terminology observations at repair facilities - listed below: ;)

Rare - "never happened to any other GM truck owner than you before!" (TSB out, haven't yet read it.)
Infrequent - "we have heard of it, but never fixed that problem here in this shop" (TSB is out, techs not yet properly trained.)
Occasional - "we did one of those a few months ago" (10 hr job that pays 5 hrs, nobody wants to do it.)
Moderate - "we fix those about once a month" (5 hr job that pays 10 hrs, gravy work)
Significant - "we see that issue in our shop weekly" (repair well know, parts in stock, plenty of techs available)
Chronic - "we have a tech that does only this repair" (...and he's about to quit.)

:D

[DmaxMaverick]

I hear what you're saying, and don't categorically disagree with you. I just don't buy into the terminology. 2001's may certainly be more likely than other years to have head gasket issues, but not to any degree of "2001 model years are know to have a moderate level of head gasket failures. Probably would have happened, regardless of the overheat issue". A higher rate of occurrence does not make it "prone to fail".

Considering all of the head gasket diagnosis and replacements of all 2001 Duramax trucks vs. the trucks in service, the failure rate is low. This is not considering all the misdiagnosis, not that dealer shops would do that with any degree of regularity. The overall actual failure rate is likely much less than 1%. Hardly an epidemic proportion. I know of more misdiagnosised head gasket failures than actual failures.