langzaiguy

Prior to a trip, I checked all my fluids and all were good except for the coolant--it was a half gallon low. It seems like I've had a strange, slow coolant leak for awhile (don't know where it was going). The oil was black and the engine was firing fine.

Anywho--on my trip, the truck started to overheat. I pull over and check the coolant and it's a gallon low & the oil seemed fine. I put more coolant in but only get a couple miles further and it's hot again. I have it towed back to my residence.

I had to start & stop it a couple times to get it on and off the trailer. Both times had plooms of white smoke. Coolant seemed to be spewing from the #4 cylinder around the exhaust manifold. Checked the oil and it had a oil/coolant mix.

I took off the intake & the exhaust. Raw coolant poured out of the head ONLY at the #4 cylinder. On the intake side, there was an oil/coolant sludge sitting in the intake of all four cylinders.

I took the head off (initially difficult to separate). Only the #4 is white-washed. The ring on the HG around the #4 is bent & broken. It would seem as though the bad HG was the problem, but I'm wondering if the #4, for some reason, had high compression and blew it out. In other words, is the blown HG a result of a bigger problem?

Here is a picture of the HG & block:


Notice the ring is bent at 11 o'clock.

The HG and the head (both engbldr) are only a year old.

I will get the head pressure tested this week. I would be grateful to anyone's input on what my problem may be. Thanks in advance!

langzaiguy

If the picture does not display, here is a link to it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34617055@N00/3189476986/

91diesel

On my 3.0 v6 the HG blowing pretty much looked the same way and it was just the wonderful 3.0 head gasket/sealing surface. I didn't know the 22re's had this problem too.

langzaiguy

Typically, the 22re's don't have HG problems. The HG started to go last year around 180k miles. I'm now replacing it again at 196k mi. I guess I didn't do as good as I thought I did. Practice makes perfect.

Anybody else have anything thoughts? HG blow= the actual problem OR a result of a different problem?