Ids buzz test always comes up all working. crank always sounded even to me. But not an expert at it either.

 

Here's an example of what an even crank should sound like.

 

Got Bad news bad news and good news.



Bad news#1. All the crap on the top side of the engine has to come off.


Bad news #2. Got a blown head gasket.


Good news its only on the driver side.

driver bank
475
460 (fell fast when i stopped cranking. )
475 (slowly leaked down)
500

pass bank
475
475
475
475
no bleed down.

looks like i gotta pull driver head.

 

If I were in your place I would do both sides and also renew the lifters.

your values are surprisingly good for a defective HG

 

if it wasnt for the fact pass sides such a pita to do i would... but because it is.. im not... plus i did the HG before barely 3 years ago...just annoyed its gotta be done again...

i was surprised too... min needed to start a diesel i read somewhere was 400... 500 is supposed to be excellent... cyl 4 bled down quickly after i stopped cranking... it lost 100 psi even before a minute passed... cyl 6 lost pressure but was a slow bleed... i ran the test twice on each cyl getting the same results on every one of them...

 

Yeah, very good. I'm wondering about the gauge.

Fell fast after stopped cranking. If that compression guage has a valve in the tip to hold pressure until you hit a bleed valve, I would not take that as a cylinder fault. An average of 475 with a low of 460, with a quirky reading, I would go there yet.

Redo the compression test, check that the one way and bleed valves are clear. If ithey are and it repeats, I'd be doing a leak down test to see if the valves don't have a minor leak.

Hartwig, you can't do all the lifters on a 6.o unless you pull the entire engine.

 

You posted as I was.

 

From Keith Browning, one of the best 6.0 techs out there, maybe better than DTR.

"A compression test will not detect a failed 6.0L cylinder head gasket but it will detect other cylinder wear and damage."

 

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/SER35750

compression tester i bought...had to cut the AC box a little to get the GP harness outta the passenger side... just one of the useless ears that was in the way... i really hate these squished in there engines... as much as i hate inline engines.. i kinda wish it had one in there...

 

That is exactly what I would do. I find it difficult to do all work well with cab on/ engine not removed

 

Shawn - Ah, you're starting to put a Cummins swap in your head. Been there. Twice. No, fourteen times.

I've not had a gasket failure in a 6.0. The problem, including Keith's comment, is it's a dynamic situation. They seem to start with combustion gas slightly escaping under a higher power, and then it might take 10 to 20k miles before a hard puke.

Everyone thinks of these as a hard gasket failure. That's not how I see this until the end and what I'm narrating in the vids I'm working on. The heads start with elastic deformation in the center, then that starts to become plastic deformation. It may be part of stress due to the hardening of the valve seats or nothing to do with that. But the deck plate of the heads is moving. You lose a little clamping force at the center, the gasket allows a little gas to escape. It eventually abrades on the gasket.

And that's where I'm coming from; I don't think the compression gauge initially will always tell the story. But now you've said you did the test twice, so it's not the gauge. By normal numbers of variance between cylinders, you've got a 3% leak. Maybe you are right; there has just not that much compression testing that I'm aware of to say so.

 

not so much a cummins tbh... if i was gonna do somekind of 6 swap its be a catapillar since EVERYONE!!! does a cummins... ive always liked catapillar's more... (dont ask why i dont even know... just always have) only reason i like the idea of a 6 cyl is for the room to work on things in these cramped engine bays... but i like the fact we have 2 extra cyls to help with the pulling... ive had inlines before (not diesels unless you count my tractor) that i dont really like how they sound like theyre over revving going down the highways... but they are torque monsters for sure... could be different now with modern inlines.. but all the exp ive had with them kinda put bad taste in my mouth for them...

for me i dont think it was the heads or just the gasket... i think when it happend was when the stock turbo melted down last spring... it froze fully closed and had to drive it home on the highway... thinking it happened then and just didnt start noticing till i hooked up the trailer this last time... had the trailer hooked up once before that right after the turbo cooked off... but didnt notice anything then... but have had a constant hide and seek game with the coolant since i got the truck... bottle would look empty till id pop the cap then suddenly fill partially when the pressure bled off... id fill it up and next time i drive the truck itd be over full like all the coolant came out from where ever it was hiding.. (first time ive ever had a vehicle do that...) biggest thing im hating with this diesel is no matter what problem im having, there never seems to be any easy definitive "tests" to find where and whats causing the problems like i could with my gassers..

when i had the gasket go before it was frustrating to find till i actually found it... original pressure test showed a leak at the T-stat housing... replaced it seemed to fix it.. but kept smelling coolant burning... took me 2 months to find it leaking out the back of the head (which time i was emptying the coolant bottle in 10 miles of city traffic)... the gasket went between the coolant passage at the back of the block where it transferred from the block to the head and was spraying the coolant onto the up pipe.. golden trails all down the back side of the block too... unfortunately this time its coming out the coolant bottle when loaded...

this trucks almost making me want a backup HD truck that can do what its supposed to do to have for when its "needed".... because the truck decides to break something everytime i need it to be a TRUCK...