Head gasket weeping coolant

[jerry598]

700 miles on my rebuild and I find a slow leak of the green stuff along the lower, rear edge of the p side head under the #8 cylinder. Don't know if its been doing it all along or if it just started recently.

Could I get away with just retorquing those two easy to reach rear bolts along the bottom edge of the head where the leak appears to be coming from? Or should I do all of the bolts again? If I only did the to two rear lower bolts I wouldn't have to remove the injector lines and valve cover.

I used Felpro TTY bolts on the heads. Can these bolts be safely retorqed?

[rameye]

do a pressure test and verify where the fluid is coming from before you go thru the hell of taking things apart!

It could be coming from up above at the coolant lines or something weird..

my $.02

[jerry598]

Thanks for the advice. I'll do that. Upon further inspection the leak seems to be from the rear of the head, close to that coolant passage on the left rear of cyl. #8. Will go for the pressure test first.

[john8662]

Heater hose, especially where the aluminum tube has the bracket attached, good source of leak. The block-off plate up top is also a source of leak. Not usually a gasket issue.

The head bolts aren't torqued into place, You go 20, 50, and then 90 degrees. So, retorque to what? That's the problem.

J

[jerry598]

Good news I think. The heads have that port on the left bottom end where the temp sensor screws in (on the drivers side head for my truck). On the pass side head, the port has a plug in it. I think that's where my leak is but I can't reach it by hand without pulling the inner fender and dropping the turbo down pipe out of the way. Will do that tomorrow and then pressure the cooling system again to confirm if that is really the source of the leak. Sure hope so. I can't even see that plug except with great difficulty because of the starter heat shield and the pipes in the way.

[john8662]

You're right, forgot about the plug, yep, could be.

[Robyn]

If you get a couple things out of your way, you should be able to reach down from the top.

Good bet that the plug is loose, or was removed and not sealed with goop.

[jerry598]

It was the plug, thank goodness. There was sealant on it but apparently it was not tightened adequately when installed. My oversight.

Had to remove the wheel and inner fender to get to it. Of course, drained the cooling system first, removed the inner fender and then had easy access, especially since I dropped the starter first. Sure glad I didn't have to blame the CCH heads. So far, so good at 700 miles.

Also modified the front starter bracket so I could plug in a block heater on the RH side. Probably overkill but the heater was already installed and I could not plug in the wire because the OEM bracket would not allow the cord to be plugged into the starter.

[DaveBr]

That's what I like to hear! Another Diesel Page success story!!!

[jerry598]

Yep, thanks to everyone for all of your replies and invaluable help!