For starters, hi everyone, I'm new here.

Okay, so to my problem:

A few months back I dumped a couple grand into headgaskets, ARP studs, oil cooler, EGR delete kit for my truck (oil cooler, and gaskets where OEM, the studs ARP and the delete kit was from sinister diesel (I bought it all from sinister as a kit)) and everything seemed to be great, but this afternoon I was showing a buddy how I had my wire for my sub running from my battery to the cab, and I noticed that my coolant reservoir looked empty, and I looked up at my hood and that's when I saw it... white powder splattered all over the hood and top of the bottle. I can only remember one or two isolated times while driving that I thought I smelled coolant, and when my exhaust smelled almost sweet, but I don't drive the thing hard, and it hasn't gotten above 45 degrees outside for the past couple months so I can't imagine it got too hot. Is this sounding like yet another blown headgasket job, or is my blow off cap defective, or is the delete kit defective? Should I keep the truck, or burn it in the desert? (Kidding, I don't have the money to burn my truck, I drive a Ford, all of my money goes into the truck)

The truck is a 2005 6.0 lariat.

 

Get the level back to normal. "T" a pressure gauge in the to the coolant line that goes between the bottle and the radiator, then warm the truck up fully. You'll see the pressure on the gauge come up between 10 and 16, that's normal. Go out and loosen the cap to release all the pressure then tighten it again. Now go romp on the engine. If you can build 16 psi again you do have a headgasket problem. After releasing the pressure while hot it should be difficult to get more than about 4psi again but I can't say that's a definitive number. What I can say for sure is if you release all the pressure hot, you can't build another 16psi without a headgasket issue or a complete cool-down period.

 

Will just any ol gauge work? I think I have one or two for an air compressor somewhere.

Thank you, I'll give it a shot.

 

Yes. It doesn't need to be a liquid filled one. I got a real long hose for the gauge so I could route it through the firewall and hang it in the cab off a zip tie on the pillar handle.

I'll say a prayer to the powerstroke gods tonight praying that you just have a bad cap!

 

Yup. Run it so you can see it of course

 

Thank you guys. God I hope its just the cap, I don't wanna have a money pit that I'm gonna have to try to find some way to sell it.

Do you guys know if it's usual for head gaskets to blow so soon after getting them fixed? The ones I replaced were kinda bad (in my opinion, but i honestly dont know very much about diesels or mechanics) bad, but a mechanic buddy of mine said they weren't the worst he's ever seen.

 

Welcome, first off. 6.0 powerstroke engines can be picky about head surfaces. I did about everything you did with the kit from sinister diesel also. Changed my headgaskets myself. It wasn't a week later and they were leaking again. Pulled the heads and had a machine shop check them out. They were warped out of spec by ALOT. Went to a set of o-ring heads from UCF and they have been great. If you didn't have your heads decked and dusted then it's hard to say if the heads are any good.

 

I might have to look into those if it is my headgaskets again. I'm pretty sure no machining was done to the heads when the gaskets were changed out.

God I hope it's just a cap.... headgasket jobs are expensive!

 

Any update on your issue?

 

I went to ford and had them take a look at it, they said that my radiator is cracked and said that ithe is probably from over boosting.... not sure how I could have done that though, everything is stock. But they said that they wouldn't be able to test my headgaskets without replacing the radiator because the cracking wouldn't allow the system to pressurize. But, I bought a new coolant reservoir cap because I read that they don't hold the right pressure as they age, and so far all is well, but as far as puking coolant. But I won't know until I get the radiator fixed.

 

Sounds like you got a rookie tech. Boost pressure has no correlation to coolant system pressure unless you have a blown hg. He was correct in not being able to test hg though. Need a completely sealed coolant system to check pressure.

 

I've seen Headgaskets crack a radiator due to the excessive coolant pressure (and I'm sure age of the rad didn't help the extra strain put in it by the pressure).

How did the deck surfaces get cleaned when the heads were off?