Head Gasket?

[budtoh3zo]

2003 6.0L hasent had over 28 PSI of boost and its puking coolant, 60,000 KM on the clock. What do u guys think?

 

[Invader]

stock boost is supposed to be 22-25 psi WOT 3rd gear. 28 for stock is on the high side but they are all a little different. Puking coolant could be from the degas bottle to full ,or your head gaskets are lifting under the pressure.

 

[budtoh3zo]

The bottle is under low now by about 1/4 of a inch, if its lifting does it screw the head gasket? thanks

 

[Invader]

I think what happens on some are the head bolts stretch slightly allowing a minute gap. Maybe they weren't torqued properly. Another thing to ponder is that at 25 psi is almost 2 atmospheres of pressure. Try to hold your thumb over an air hose with 3 psi in it and you won't be able to hold it back. I'm not sure what they do to fix the problem.

 

[budtoh3zo]

They said to me they are putting thicker head gaskets it? dont know if it would help

 

[DaveBen]

A thicker gasket might help if it is a gasket problem, but I read it as a head clamping problem. The only fix it to re-engineer the head bolts (add more) on the 6.0.

Dave

 

[budtoh3zo]

i head that to also another solution i heard about is use head studs

 

[DaveBen]

That is about a $700 solution that we should not need to do. That is why I don't ever run "power enhassment products" or chips. They increase the power and the resulting increases in cylinder pressure causes the head to lift and leak.

Dave

 

[Kleetus]

The other option is a lock ring headgasket or an O-ringed gasket...

You realise that 28 PSI on a 25 PSI system is only 12% over. That's not much. I would wonder about the bolt torque, and or manufacturing tolerance, and how carefully it was installed.

Have they checked the coolant for exhaust byproducts? Soot, acid, or fuel/oil contamination? That would really say whether or not it's a gasket or head bolt leak. You read about other guys running 40 PSI of boost and they haven't gone BOOM yet. Something just doesn't gel.

 

[budtoh3zo]

coolant is clean, i have always been running it on the safe side. I have had the EGT's up to 1200 so i wonder if its the EGR cooler and its boiling it and pressurizing it and blowing it out that way?