When you get the 7.3 rocker, they look completely different.

Not to worry, the are direct bolt on replacements and much stronger than the 6.9 style.

If you do any cleaning, on the injectors be very careful of the pintle sticking out of the nozzle end of the injector.
even the slightest bend in it and the injector will not work.

3/4" copper fitting brush used with care and a bit of brake cleaner spray down each injector bore cleans out the carbon in the heads, BUT be very careful you don't go hog wild and damage the injector seat surface at the bottom of the bore with the wire sticking out of the end of the brush.

Make sure there is no oil on the block deck or the head surface when you install the head gaskets.

Studs at the rear of the passenger side head will not be any fun with the engine in the truck.

Make sure you follow ARP's torquing directions.

Run down to torque in steps and in sequence four times, remove them four times, again in steps and sequence before the final install.

Yes it makes a big difference in how they torque down, I picked up about 1 full turn more on the last install of the nuts.

Be very sparing with the moly assembly lube on the studs and nuts, you don't want to contaminate the head gaskets.

 

ARP must be getting lazy on the install info, since all the sheet says is to torque down in three steps to 80ft lbs, and after reading around here about it, that's nowhere near right...

I'm not looking forward to torquing down the heads with the motor in the truck, but don't really have a choice as far as my situation goes. So it's torque it down to ??ft lbs in 4 steps, then back the nuts off at the same rate, and then do it all over again?

Thanks for all the additional info Dave.

 

When I built mine I had the engine out.

Install studs
Clean block deck with acetone
Clean head surface with acetone
Drop on head gasket
Drop on head
Very light swipe of assembly lube across stud threads with finger
Torque down in sequence and four steps 65, 85, 100, 110

Then reverse procedure and remove

Repeat three more times at a minimum, I did four.

Final install.

Yes, I used a modified 93 7.3 turbo torque spec on my head studs, but I was planning on a little extreme boost pressure.

For what it is worth, when I bougth my head studs, they had three grades.

180,000 PSI
200,000 PSI
220,000 PSI

Yes I bought the highest grade, about 3 bills if I remember right.

Never did figure out why my arm was sore the next day.

 

With the side cover off the HVAC you'll have plenty of room on the passengerside. I installed the head first then screwed the studs in by hand, DO NOT tighten them. Like Dave said on the steps ending up at 110ftlbs.
Here's a pic with the cover removed showing all the room you'll have. Also here's the sequence, just modify the values.

 

Holy S***! Four times? I was already not looking forward to it, but damn...
After the money and time being dropped into this, not pulling any shortcuts. At least I know what I'll be up to in the next couple of days.

87crewdually: Thanks for the info, I'll definitely be pulling that off.

 

Heads are finally all torqued down, rain stopped progress for a bit.
If my math is correct, it's 512 clicks of a torque wrench per head, including the final 2nd run of 110lbs at the end...

So 1024+ clicks down, plus two sore arms, and lower ribs from leaning over the radiator. Fun times.

And for anyone planning on doing this in the future, pull the underhood heater cover first. It would've made installing the head 100x easier, and it needed to be pulled anyway to torque it down.

 

Heres a thought for a leaky head gasket last summer I noticed the return bottle was completely empty , checked the radiator on both took almost 2 gallons , filled both and noticed that there were air bubbles in the return bottle real bad , within 2 days the truck was empty again , no visible leaks and furthermore there was straight water dripping from the exhaust with no mixing or overheating or high oil level , the only thing that i could think is water straight into cylinder, so I got 2quarts of blue devil and almost 2k miles later the truck still holds water and the leaky head gasket appears to be fixed ...I have visited the Blue devil website and watched several youtube videos and have never seen on diesel application , I did as a test and it worked very well ...

 

Keep a close eye on it, the PO of my truck used Blue Devil, it held for a bit, then the leak came back with a vengeance and it also clogged my radiator and heater core... so just be careful...

 

Thank you will do, this truck has more than 250k on it , I will not be doing a head gasket on this engine , its seems the only residual problem is air bubbling the return bottle , although slight it is still there , which I can't figure out whether this is normal or that air is still being pushed through the head gasket , the only problem that I have with starting is the engine will freeze up like the piston is pushing water , which hasn't happened recently , but is a seldom occrence

 

you might not have a bad head u might have a cavitated block

 

I am sorry but I am not familiar with that , could you elaberate at all ...

 

Just search 'Cavitation' in this section, and you'll find all the info you need. Don't need this thread getting and turning into more pages of the same cavitation info that's everywhere else.

If you don't know what it is, and the truck has that many miles on it, it's a good bet that's your problem.

Actually, Here's all the info you need to know:
Cavitation Article

Now, back to the regularly scheduled program...

 

I appreciate the info , its incredibly helpful and its not my intention at all to derail this thread with mindless questions , I just wasn't sure if this was a result of the head gasket leak, but now reading this I would agree that may be the problem ... Thanks again , I am what many here would call a novice but enjoy being taught ...This truck has been my favorite work truck since I bought it in 92' a true workhorse ....

 

No worries at all, and welcome to the site.

Motor is almost completely back together...
As far as removing the IP housing to stop if from leaking oil everywhere, it's just pull the bolts, slide it up and off (without disturbing or unmeshing the gears), clean it off and RTV it back on? Couldn't find a gasket listed online at the parts store...

 

It's alive! Fired right up when it got fuel. No fluids leaking and running great.

Exhaust is leaking like crazy out the manifolds. There were no gaskets on there before, and I just bolted the pipes on and tightened them. Any trick to get them to stop leaking, can't really drive with the smoke blowing in the cab...