AAARGHH! Blown head

[KERRSURF]

I had loss of coolant, going into expansion tank and not going back to rad on cool down. New rad, new hoses, everything fine.

Couple of months later loosing coolant, no rise in temp on gauge.

Changed rad cap, system pressurised, lots of white steam coming from exhaust, truck lumpy to start.

Whats the chances of it just being a gasket?

Is roughtrax my best bet to buy new head? I'l do the spanner work myself.

I intend to strip head and get it tested but it don't look to good at the moment.

Anything else I should be doing? Any pitfalls in doing the head?

[stormforce]

the 3.0l i am breaking now that was a non starter and suspect head gone.I took the head off and no visible sign of cracks and then i noticed the gasket had blown between number 1 and 2 pots.If only i had checked before selling parts i would of had a decent truck to sell but time was money and i was in need of it
There's a chance it may just be the gasket but just a slim chance

[KERRSURF]

I hope your right Richard....I can only hope, ###### skint at the moment.

[stormforce]

if the truck i am getting tomorrow is just the water pump gone i will get the head here checked next week and it will be for sale.

[KERRSURF]

Good stuff mate, keep me informed.
I'm too busy over the next couple of weeks to work on it anyway so let me know how you get on.

[darkdezigns]

all i will say is good call putting link general as i rarely look elsewhere lol ,im yet to see onne with gasket only,thats sounds similar to when my head went,mine just slowly pushed it out of expansion tank,i could drive 200 miles before topping up,eventually got lumpy start up,if its head i cant reccomend the roughtrax kit enough,but it aint cheap,but they use amc for the head and amc originally supplied the head for toyota,i got the fully built head and its made a massive diffrence to mine,dont even need full throttle anymore,i changed everything,head,water pump,cambelt kit etc,that lot came to a fiver shy of a grand,then my rad went,which was another 200,but if your keeping it well worth it

[Albannach]

Do the belts and tensioner at the same time.

You cooked it a while back wee man, I wonder if this is the end result?

[stormforce]

Good stuff mate, keep me informed.
I'm too busy over the next couple of weeks to work on it anyway so let me know how you get on.

if the head comes back ok and i don't need it then i will sell for £225 delivered with proof of test on it.I'll let you know how it goes

[KERRSURF]

My rad is new so don't need that, I'll replace water pump.
roughtrax have reduced the price of complete head kit.

My truck owes me nothing so it's not too bad, def keeping her.

[KERRSURF]

if the head comes back ok and i don't need it then i will sell for £225 delivered with proof of test on it.I'll let you know how it goes

Cheers mate.

[darkdezigns]

My rad is new so don't need that, I'll replace water pump.
roughtrax have reduced the price of complete head kit.

My truck owes me nothing so it's not too bad, def keeping her.

ah good then ,roughtrax water pump comes with housing too so no worries about leaks either,and get some "gunk",take inlet manifold off and clean it out,you will understand when u see the inside of it

[KERRSURF]

Do the belts and tensioner at the same time.

You cooked it a while back wee man, I wonder if this is the end result?

I will do mate, I'm thinking the same thing Andy....who knows, maybe just cause she's old eh?

I'll get the gunk for the manifold.

[stormforce]

I got a feeling that mine may be on its way as every so often i have to top the expansion bottle as there's nothing in it.My truck has been well abused tho and what with the heavy towing i do and had the temp up in the red a few times aswell but she still goes on.I'll just keep going till it blows and either replace the head or v8 it

[gwh200]

Stevo told me that if you have a visible crack, and it's possible to skim it, you can take up to 40 thou off it.

[BigYin]

That sucks big time bro. My Mrs cooked our rover years back - leaky rad - she say the temp go way high and decided to drive the last few miles home! Water pump cooked, head gasket fried! Cost a fortune! Still, Toyota calmly say that if a Hilux overheats you should park up and keep the engine idling at 1,500 rpm to speed up the cooling... Won't do much good if there's no coolant getting around though!