I know that there has been another thread close to this but i didnt get the info i needed from it. I would like to know some vehicle syptoms of a damaged head gasket..i have read a little bit about the coolant,"puking out",of the reservoir but where?? i am losing a minor amount of coolant at high rpm's from the reservoir and the lid is dry right after driving(even on the rubber seal under the lid top) ..a couple of questions here for you gurus :
-should the top hose to the reservoir have free flow into the reservoir??i tested it to see if maybe it was clogged and it appeared to have been somewhat restricted..(possibly from a STOP LEAK applied before my new radiator gumming up the reservoir?)
-would my coolant stay at a relatively constant level with a bad head gasket?
-what are the hazards of running at high rpm/towing with a bad gasket?
- how hard is it to replace a head gasket at home or is it doable?..i have a mechanic next door that loves to help me fix stuff..
- what are the main symptoms of head gasket failure?

 

It would REALLY help if you would post the year model and mileage of your truck. Info goes two ways in providing you answers to your question, but here is the generic answer:

The main symptom is coolant loss from the coolant reservoir. It gets blown out around the cap, but that could also indicate a failed oil and EGR cooler. Are you steaming out the tail pipe? What do you consider "high" RPM's. Are you running a tuner? There are kits that can test for the presence of exhaust in the coolant which might indicate a blown headgasket. It's definitely a doable job at home if you have the right stuff, depending on your level of mechanical experience. There are LOTS AND LOTS of threads about blown head gaskets from at LEAST the past 6 years.

 

my fault .. 2004 6.0 70,000...i just had the egr cooler , oil cooler and radiator replaced so i would think that all of those things would be safe...i am not streaming any exhaust out of the ordinary right now..and with all due respect i would rather get realtime info than continue to search all night for past posts..as i posted to begin with i havent found what i needed in a search yet.

 

The coolant will "puke" around the cap of the de-gas bottle....

Even with the cap or around the bottle is dry after driving, there is an easy way to tell if it is puking or not. If it does, you'll have white-ish residue around the cap area, or on the bottle or under it..... If you have the residue, it's "puking".
Puking could be caused by blown head gasket, or faulty EGR cooler, but EGR cooler failure usually shows white smoke out of the tail-pipe too.
There are two "top" hoses going to the de-gas bottle. One from the highest point of the radiator, one is from the highest point of the engine. If you disconnect any of them and try to "blow" into it, you'll have restriction, if the other end is still connected. Just think about it, with blowing into it, you try to push, compress the coolant in the engine or the radiator.
You mentioned some kind of STOP LEAK applied. What kind? The kind, what you poor into the coolant system, and it circulates and clogs the leaks from the inside? In my opinion that's a big NO-NO in the 6.0. Even the casting sand from the factory will clog the oil cooler passages in our trucks, so there is no question what the STOP LEAK will do.
That is relative. It could stay relatively constant, or it could blow 1qt at a simple city drive. It is up to the damage of the HG , your driving style, etc... When my HG-s were blown, sometimes it stayed level for 2 days, than I lost a lot of coolant in one short (10 miles) trip.
There are hazards of course. From the cab you don't see how much coolant you lost, you don't see the coolant level and you could run very low on it. That's not a good thing when you pulling. The higher the boost, the pressure is getting higher in the coolant system by the blown HG, you lose more coolant.
There is a possibility that you'll drive your truck for thousands of miles with blown HG-s without any other issues, but there is also a possibility that you have an extreme leak on the HG, and when you turn off the engine, the pressure built up in the coolant system will push the coolant back in to the cylinder... That's also not good.
It is hard! But it is doable. Several of us FTE guys did it with good results. I did it too. But be ready, it's not like an oil change. It requires a lot of work, a lot of patience, and the love of diesel goo.....
If you have any doubts about your knowledge, don't try to just block that because you have a mechanic neighbor. This is a six-oh. A lot of big diesel shops refuse to work on them - especially HG work - because of the complexity of the work. Puking from the de-gas bottle at the cap especially under load , without symptom of white smoke coming from the tail-pipe...

 

the stop leak i used was back after the egr was replaced..it was a powder type from a small tube..apparently the radiator ruined when it was flushed..another mechanic told me to use the stop leak to help me get temporary use until i could get a new radiator...i have since gotten a new radiator...
one of my main ideas was that the coolant flow was restricted in the top hose coming from the radiator.(to me that looks like where the coolant is coming from) when i took that hose off and checked the flow on the de gas bottle it appeared blocked..is that normal?

 

I am REALLY worried about this on my truck. I keep thinking it was just over filled and the first few times under a load it just purged out the excess.

 

There is a possibility, that you overfill your system ( the full level should be at the low mark on the bottle ) , and it does push some coolant out, and finally it rests at the constant level. Yes, it is a possibility, but I have to mention, that I just ignored this, and my coolant level is at the full mark on the bottle, and I did not lose a drop of coolant since I installed ARP-s, and deleted my EGR cooler.
But if you constantly loosing coolant, that isn't overfill problem....

 

It shouldn't be blocked. The top hose on the radiator - the small one - is the one, what de-gas the coolant system, means that's the line where the air raises and gets purged into the de-gas bottle. That's why it's at the top of the radiator.

I do have a bad feeling about using the STOP LEAK in your system, and especially that you mentioned that you used it AFTER getting the new EGR . You also mentioned, that you've got a new oil cooler, and I assume, that you've had them both replaced in the same time. If it is true, and you used the STOP LEAK after, than there is a good chance , that you clogged the brand new oil cooler with the stop leak. What happens, the coolant flow stops at the oil cooler, and since the coolant flows from the oil cooler to the EGR cooler, there is a chance that you don't have a flow to the EGR cooler at all. The results of that is the classic EGR cooler failure.
I don't want to be the messenger, who brings the bad news, but there is a chance, that with adding STOP LEAK to your system, you just blow the new oil and EGR cooler.
You can look around here, and you'll find several threads about coolant filter for the 6.0. The reason we add that to our trucks, is to filter out all the casting sand and debris from our coolant system, so it won't clog the oil cooler, what causes the EGR cooler failure.
The STOP LEAK does the exact opposite. It is designed to clog the small leaks, holes in the system by building sticky blocks at them. Unfortunately the oil cooler passages are just like "small leaks", and they are most likely blocked by now....

 

same as what my truck is doing, and thats after doing the gaskets..

I pulled the cab to do my head gaskets... check my other post for some other info

 

I just read your other posts, and..... well, in all honesty the least you should've done is take the heads to a machine shop. I did my HG job, and I rebuilt countless of motors in my life, and in 95% of the times toke the heads to shave them. It wasn't because it had to be done, but because I sleep better by knowing that I did everything in my power to get the job done.
I know it doesn't help you much at this point though. I think you should pull the heads off, take them to a machine shop, and see what they say.....

 

Actually with the 6.0s though, you are going to want to have the heads milled if they can be done less then .008 and be flat. I have seen and known people that have had studs done and didn't machine the heads or replace the heads if they were that bad off and it came back to bite them in the butt.

If you are doing head studs, because your truck needs to have the work done, a trip to the machine shop should be a standard thing. Not up for debate.

 

Hey Tex!

Yes, you absolutely right. I read his other posts, and he installed studs and put the heads back without machine them.
What I meant is, that I check and machine the heads no matter what, no matter what kind of engine, etc. . For example I just built a SBC 327, it came out from a 1970 Chevy C-10, and it was running perfect - except a burnt valve. I've had to pull the head(s), and I machined them , even though the compression tested better than OK in all cylinders....

 

yup. I agree guys. I know two guys that work at dealers that helped do the job. neither of them were concerned with the heads being bad seeing as how the ford spec is HUGE, they keep upping it.

Neither have ever sent heads in to get machined, one had only ever put one set of heads on one, the other had never done heads.

*shrugs* ya live ya learn i guess....

then comes an issue with shaving the heads... if you do it and you dont knock the dowels down with them. your F-ed. not that thats an excuse or anything haha

when fall comes I'm going to yank the cab again and see whats going on with it.

 

The dowels are removable, and the matter of fact you should have new-ones in the package with the gaskets....

 

yeah yeah. I know...just saying.