6.2 Diesel Coolant Foaming

[olestackedchevy82]

I have an 82 6.2 turboed diesel with 86 heads and 20lbs of boost. It has a few mods like 19.1 cermaic coated pistons, stud girdle, 6.5 marine injectors, arp head studs, hx 35 holset turbo, and fel pro headgaskets. I ran this truck along time with just felpro head bolts and gaskets prob 20,000 miles no problems. When i gotta alittle money saved up this summer i tore into it and did all this good stuff and switched the heads to 86. Well now about 5000 miles later im having a headgasket problem i am pretty sure. I used all the arp stuff when i istalled the studs and torqued to 90lbs with there lube.. When you let it run for awhile the water just foams up in the radiator then in turn gets hot. Is this a headgasket problem? I worked on these before but ive never had one to foam up they just bubbled. Are there any recommendations to keeping this from happening again?? Any new torque specs or anything im overlooking? Thanks

[john8662]

Which head gaskets did you use?

You mentioned that you swapped the heads to '86, but did you use 6.2L gaskets or 6.5TD gaskets?

ARP head studs, oh the fun these things cause, the installation of these has to be so carefull, or you'll get a leak in many ways.

Leak of compression, leaking coolant into the cylinders (small), leaking coolant into the engine oil. Just to name the ones I've dealt with, w/o the introduction of a failed actual gasket.

J

[olestackedchevy82]

I just used the felpro 6.2 headgaskets. Could i put the 6.5td's on it? Also would i be better off just buying new headbolts and giving up on the studs? I used the proper arp sealer. Theres no water in the oil or even coming out of the exhaust.

[arveetek]

You can use the better 6.5L gaskets if you don't have the extra cooling passage found in the older heads, which you probably have. My '86 heads had the extra port, so I had to stick with the 6.2L gaskets.

Read this article for more info:

http://www.thedieselpage.com/members/gmheads.htm

Casey