Time For A Head Gasket?

Not sure which water grommets they used but the head is a new/remanned CAT head with a new (thicker or thinner; can't remember which one) spacer plate that brings the liner measurements into the upper "acceptable" range CAT wants.

 

I can certainly believe they didn't clean the block deck properly since they thought reusing head bolts was an acceptable practice. The coolant level is always at the bottom of the fill neck when I pop the cap and I don't see any oil in it, no white smoke at start up and no coolant in the oil so those are good signs.

However, the truck has been running warmer than usual lately. If allowed to idle long enough, it will heat up until the fan comes on. I don't recall it doing that before. I'll just have to plan for the worst while I run it and hope for the best I guess.

 

I'm not putting anything in my engine. Instead, I plan on running it for another couple of weeks (if it makes it that long). After that I'll have the repair done.

 

Sure did (it was very blown but I didn't know until it was very advanced). I plan on doing it all over again this year too apparently. Only difference is this year I'm completely aware of it. Might as well get as much money out of it before she totally dies again. I'm not putting anything in the engine other than oil and coolant. I'm pretty sure this time it blew was my fault. I firmly regret throwing a tune on it without a turbo to match it.