head gasket didnt seal.

steven4177 · Nov 27, 2016

purchased a 05 ram 4.7 a week and a half ago. it had water in the cylinders so figured blow heads that fine ill buy it and fix it. get it home pull it apart and get the heads to the shop. get heads milled/resurfaced get back home install new rings, bearing, oil pump, timing chain guides, tensioners, gears, chains, and all new seals. get it all reassembled and truck wont start. timing is dead on. get to checking and pull spark plugs. have water in all eight cylinders. yes heads was torque properly and in correct order. blew water out drained radiator and as much of the engine as i could. tried to crank truck and it started up sounds great. pour 1 gallon back in truck and no start water again in cylinders. pressurize cooling system and hear hising. get a light out and take a look to see where it coming from and behold water/air bubble coming from around the head gasket on both heads. wtf. why didnt it seal. any ideas

steven4177 · Nov 28, 2016

What's the odds of a defective head gasket

charonblk07 · Nov 28, 2016

Have your block checked to make sure you've got a flat surface for the head to seal to, if it was overheated it can warp that surface. Also, have a look at your heads, if they were milled that could be an issue as well. Having both head gaskets fail is almost impossible, I'd be looking for something else as the culprit, like something sitting proud of the mating surface that's binding and holding the heads high, possibly used the wrong gasket on the wrong side of the engine, etc.

Rustycowl69 · Nov 28, 2016

wow. did the machine shop magna Flux the heads? Are you 100% sure they are the correct head gaskets? Did you examine the cylinders for cracks?

charonblk07 · Nov 28, 2016

It would be pointless for a MPI since the heads are aluminum, you need a ferro-magnetic material to do an MPI; they'd need to use a dye penetrant to test aluminum; but I would agree that there should be some sort of inspection done on the heads if you can't find anything obvious.

steven4177 · Nov 28, 2016

Shop milled and seated valves and said they pressure checked. Said everything was great nothing was wrong. 99℅ gaskets were correct. Looked identical to the old ones. When watching the water drip out around the gasket it is coming from between head and gasket. Pulling engine back out tomorrow the remove heads. And yes I examined the block and the heads and there wasn't anything visible.

steven4177 · Nov 28, 2016

The gasket set I had is a big 3 gaskets brand purchased at the shop that did the heads. Never heard of it but that what they had and since I was there I said y not. Thinking that was a mistake

steven4177 · Nov 28, 2016

Are these not cast iron blocks?

RonJon '06 · Nov 28, 2016

Did you buy all new head bolts or reuse the old ones? Yes, cast iron blocks and aluminum heads.

charonblk07 · Nov 28, 2016

steven4177 said:
The gasket set I had is a big 3 gaskets brand purchased at the shop that did the heads. Never heard of it but that what they had and since I was there I said y not. Thinking that was a mistake

If you haven't bought them yet, rackauto has a wholesale closeout sale on the Mahle 4.7L head gaskets for dirt cheap. Change out to new head bolts as well. How much did they mill the head? if the head bolts are bottoming out then they aren't holding the proper pressure on the head and you might need a shim for the bolt head.

steven4177 said:
Are these not cast iron blocks?

Cast iron block, aluminum heads.

steven4177 · Nov 29, 2016

Brand new head bolts. Not sure how much they took off but the bolts aren't bottoming out.

steven4177 · Nov 29, 2016

Shop said block is fine. Any other ideas

RonJon '06 · Nov 29, 2016

The way you've explained everything I think the most likely answer is that the heads are warped. Did you clean out the head bolt holes in the block? I use a vacuum first then blow them out with compressed air. charonblk07 has studs on his engine so he doesn't have to worry about that crap anymore.

steven4177 · Nov 29, 2016

RonJon '06 said:
The way you've explained everything I think the most likely answer is that the heads are warped. Did you clean out the head bolt holes in the block? I use a vacuum first then blow them out with compressed air. charonblk07 has studs on his engine so he doesn't have to worry about that crap anymore.

Heads was taken to shop to the day I bought the truck since I knew they ran the truck hot. And since I knew nothing about the truck is the reason I rebuilt the engine. Yes holes was cleaned out. Entire engine was cleaned b4 reassembly.

steven4177 · Nov 29, 2016

I have found the cause of my issue. The head gaskets that was purchased are junk. I purchased a set of fel pro on my way back from the shop having my block checked. Got everything reassemble on the engine stand grab the radiator and connected and pressurized the system and its holding unlike the last time when I could hear it hissing and see water/air bubbles coming out from the hg. All is good as of now just got to get the engine back in and start it up. Thanks for y'all's help.

steven4177 · Nov 29, 2016

Stay away from big 3 gaskets. After comparing the 2 brands side by side the fel pro is heavier and thicker than the big 3 brand. Should have stuck to the brand that I know instead if listening to the shop. But you would think they would offer at least descent gaskets.

Rustycowl69 · Nov 29, 2016

big 3? I've never heard of them. That's a real brand?

steven4177 · Nov 29, 2016

Rustycowl69 said:
big 3? I've never heard of them. That's a real brand?

Yep. Big 3 Gaskets. Some brand I bought from the machine shop I used. The price I paid it should have been a great set. First time I had heard of them also but just figured if the shop is selling it then it must be good and at $200 it should have been. Lessoned learned. Don't buy gaskets from the machine shop and don't buy brands I don't know and haven't ever used.

Bullitt5339 · Nov 29, 2016

I've learned my lesson over time and only use OEM or Cometic head gaskets on everything.

head gasket didnt seal.

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