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6.2L: head gasket, coolant leak?

DieselWarrior

DieselWarrior

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Title was: 6.2L: Intake manifold gasket, coolant leak?

Got a leak coming from the upper part of the engine, it is dripping/running down the rear & left side of the block, right onto the exhaust pipe... dripping down off the oil filter.

I cannot locate it... Took the air filter off and looked best I can, cannot detect source.

My usual mechanic looked at it and suspected an intake manifold gasket.

Before I commit to any labor, I wanted to get your opinion on this suspicion.

Hes a good mechanic, and trustworthy (1 in a 1,000)- I wanted to see if there was ANYTHING ELSE that could be a possible culprit.

Thanks,
Andrew
 
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There are no coolant passages through the intake at all. up front there is a cast aluminum coolant crossover, and it connects one head to the other providing a path for coolant and a place for the T-stat. The rear of the heads has the same passages, pass side is usually for a coolant temp switch, and drivers side usually for the glow plug controller. Easy gaskets to replace...

Rene
 
Can someone please post pix of the item rene speaks of so I can locate them? I know I'm asking a lot.

She is parked until repaired right now. I've got to get her running to drive to work.

Thanks in advance.
Andrew
 
General pic of rear of engine.

016-1.jpg


Driver's side, glow plug contoller (early style) and under it is a coolant port.

017-1.jpg


Close up of the passenger side showing the coolant temp switch which activates the HPCA. Coolant port underneath it.

018-2.jpg


Pic of the hog and blend job I did on the intake...just because. :D

019-1.jpg


Those coolant ports are exactly the same at the front of the heads, remember they are symmetrical. Up front the aluminum crossover tube bolts to those ports allowing coolant crossover and a spot for the upper rad hose and T-stat.

That's it up top for potential coolant leak spots.

Hope that helps. Oh yeah, you might have noticed the lack of a vac pump on this engine. It just has the "plug" at the back...this engine came in a truck without AC, or cruise or anything, so there was no need for vacuum.

Rene
 
Many thanks Rene, I have not taken the truck to a mechanic for actual work yet so I will for sure check that gasket and see what comes of it.

Will post back with any findings, but from the photo... that appears to be the right location to generate the leak I detected.

Thanks again bud,
Andrew
 
Simple cardboard gasket with some rtv is all those ports need. Hell, you can make em yourself using a cereal box...

Just sayin. :waytogo:

Rene
 
I have not had a chance to look yet, but I did get some Blue RTV and some gasket material made by Felpro... so I hope Sunday Ill have a bit of free time to get under the hood.

I miss driving my hunk 'o junk. :frown1:
 
I swabed the back of the port where the temp sensor goes with a Subway napkin. :woot: It came back dry.

I looked under with my 3w LED flashlight, looks like it *may* be a leaking head gasket... Im uploading vid to YouTube right now, will be ready soon... I hope someone can view it and confirm my suspicions...


If that be the case, what would I expect the cost to be? I just got my tax return, but Id hate to blow it all on a silly leak... but I also realize theres a LOT of work involved.

Thanks,
Andrew
 
I did the head gaskets on my '83 6.2 pick-up...spent about $300, although that included ARP head studs. I do highly recommend the ARP studs. The 6.2 uses a TTY head bolt (torque to yield) which means they cannot be re-used. I have no faith in TTY head bolts. When I was disassembling my 6.2 I found three head bolts that were clearly not anywhere near as tight as the others, and I believe this was the cause for the head gasket issue on my truck.

My heads were in good shape, pretty clean, and nice and flat still so I didn't spend anything having them decked.

I did my water pump at the same time. The amount of crap that need to be removed to do a water pump is similar to the amount that has to come off for head gaskets. it's cheap insurance against having to do all that work twice.

Rene
 
DieselWarrior said:
Rene, I was looking for cost for someone else to do it... but that does give me a feel for... its not gonna be cheap. :confused:
Click to expand...

It's not hard Andrew, in fact I'd say it's a lot easier than on a small block or Big block gas engine for a few reasons. No distributor to mess with, and no valve adjusting. Probably the 'hardest' part is removing the fuel lines from the injection pump.

Key things for me are to have several plastic containers for bolts and stuff. Several small containers are better than one or two larger ones. Take some good detailed pics of stuff as you dis-assemble. One area that can cause confusion later is what length intake bolt goes where, and where do the ones with studs go. The rest is dead easy...I'd call it a relaxed weekend job for a first timer. The only special tools you would need are a torque wrench and a tap wrench and tap for the head bolt holes. The rest is just basic hand tools.

I could break it down into the basic steps and what you need to do or watch for at certain steps if you like.

Rene
 
BTW, the vid does make it look like a head gasket leak.

Can Can owned my '83 for many years before selling to me, and they has occasional issues where the truck would barf some coolant. Didn't happen often and they couldn't figure it out...but head gasket was a suspect. I put about 2000 miles on it and didn't have a problem. Then I started seeing a bit of steam from the passenger exhaust pipe, even when it was hot. I initially thought it may be a bad injector and what I was seeing was unburnt fuel from the exhaust. I swapped another set of injectors on the passenger side and nothing changed. Then the damn thing hydro-locked on me a few mornings later as I was trying to start it.

Sometimes it's clearly a head gasket, and sometimes not so much, and of course the gaskets never go in the exact same spot so the symptoms are always a little different.

Check your oil carefully, I could see a few threads of green coolant in my oil. I think the soot these engines produce prevents the oil from ever looking like a milkshake. Check for bubbling in the coolant. Has it overheated at any point recently? I was fortunate I could call up the previous owner and ask him. It never overheated on Paul or Kim, and it never overheated on me. This didn't rule out head cracks, but made them a lot less likely.

Rene
 
Thanks Rene... Ill have to give that some serious thought.


Yes, it did overheat a few months ago... I had lost a lot of coolant from a leaking block heater. It didnt
overheat for long but it did get hot. That issue was resolved before it was driven again, that is the only
incident I know of.



Andrew
 
let me put it this way...it's a much easier job than rust repair. :whistle:

If it overheated that definitely ups the probability of it being a head gasket. It also means you'll need to carefully check each head for cracks and flatness.

Rene
 
tRustyK5 said:
It's not hard Andrew, in fact I'd say it's a lot easier than on a small block or Big block gas engine for a few reasons. No distributor to mess with, and no valve adjusting. Probably the 'hardest' part is removing the fuel lines from the injection pump.

Key things for me are to have several plastic containers for bolts and stuff. Several small containers are better than one or two larger ones. Take some good detailed pics of stuff as you dis-assemble. One area that can cause confusion later is what length intake bolt goes where, and where do the ones with studs go. The rest is dead easy...I'd call it a relaxed weekend job for a first timer. The only special tools you would need are a torque wrench and a tap wrench and tap for the head bolt holes. The rest is just basic hand tools.

I could break it down into the basic steps and what you need to do or watch for at certain steps if you like.

Rene
Click to expand...

I removed a IP recently to sell and would suggest to get a special tool to remove the ip lines at the pump, it was a pain with just the wrenches I have.
 
Depends if they're crusty or not. A stubby wrench for the bottom ones makes life a little easier.

Rene
 
Well, looks like Rene stepped up to babysit my repair... so Ill give it a try.

I have a set of flare wrenches Ill use on the fuel lines.

As the first step, Ill pull the lines and remove the valve cover. After I get that part done, Ill post back with questions on the next step.

Thanks Rene!


Andrew
 
Yeah, video will be shot and posted once the repair is finished. Youtube just upgraded my service so I can upload longer than 15min videos... sweeeet!

Andrew
 
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