Mechanic came back saying my truck has a blown head gasket and it needs a new engine, (A 6.0 which would be hard to find a used one that doesn’t have over 200k miles) it seems to be a very small head gasket leak cause it doesn’t loose very much coolant. Truck was driven about 15k miles with a blown head gasket without knowing as i thought it was just a coolant leak, Should I get a sealer like Blue devil or go through the work of taking apart the engine to replace them. Thank you. (2004 GMC Yukon XL 2500)
Engine issues
- Thread starter Woldy1
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strutaeng
Full Access Member
A blown head gasket wouldn't necessarily cause a complete engine failure. I wonder why he said that? Usually a compression test would determine a blown head gasket, but unless you can also conclusively determine piston rings are also worn, you wouldn't be able to condemn the engine block as bad.
It's a lot of work for H.G., and maybe he's saying it may be the same cost (labor) to simply replace the engine? But not really that bad with these trucks given that there's a lot of room in the engine bay.
Did he say how much for only H.G.? You'd have to sent your heads to the machine shop for inspection and whatever they need.
It's a lot of work for H.G., and maybe he's saying it may be the same cost (labor) to simply replace the engine? But not really that bad with these trucks given that there's a lot of room in the engine bay.
Did he say how much for only H.G.? You'd have to sent your heads to the machine shop for inspection and whatever they need.
Agree. A head gasket wouldn’t really be that big a job, and unless it caused catastrophic damage, should certainly not condemn the engine. Maybe he wants a 6.0..
tom3
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Might try some of these. GM created this for the early cars with aluminum heads on the cast iron blocks that were having coolant leads due to the expansion differences of the metals. I've read it was a factory install in the Cadillacs for a couple years.
Donal
Full Access Member
What about reviewing the cel codes and data stream? These data are real results of the engine operating conditions. Information is allways good and usefull, but data rules. The cooling system has three main and common leakage paths. One is to atmosphere via the system fill cap and and connections of hoses to the engine components. These leaks are normally visable unless the leakage evaporates before accululating at the leak site.
Another is to the combustion chamber where the seal is lost and high pressure combustion gas escapes into the cooling system. Another is via crack in a head or block that connects the oil system to the cooling system. During engine operation, the oil system pressure is higher than the cooling system pressure. However as the engine is stopped, the oil system pressure goes to zero and the cooling pressure may increase of a brief time and decrease graduall as the temperature of the coolant and engine cools. During the cooling time the pressure of the cooling systm can be higher than the oiling system and colant can leak into the oil. Another coolant loss site can be a crack the the intake runner of the head and allow coolant to enter the combustion chamber.
Leakage is always from pressure to no pressure.
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As folks have already mentioned, a blown head gasket does not mean your motor is trash.
What diagnostic’s did the mechanic perform?
Have you had the mechanic do other work for in the past?
What symptoms, other than losing coolant, have you been experiencing with this truck? Do you have coolant in your oil?
If in fact you do need a different motor, in the quick search that I just did on car-parts.com, I found at least 5 6.0’s within 2 hours of my house that have less than 150K for less than $2500. They are out there as they made a lot of them,
Get a second opinion on this before you jump to swapping motors because based on the VERY limited information you have shared, it’s hard to say what to do.
Also, until you know where your leak is, I would not use any of the additives to try and stop a leak as that will make diagnostics that much harder.
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They said it was probably best to get a junkyard engine or retire the truck
They said it was probably best to get a junkyard engine or retire
Yea it seems to be a very small leak. another thing they said are those 6.0 engines are hard to come by. i’d rather try to fix it.
They aren’t that hard to come by, but getting more expensive, as everyone wants them for builds as they are phenomenal bang for the buck, myself included-so if you do swap it, I’ll take your old one.. 
Maybe! Got it running back to normal, Replaced the thermostat and water pump, I saw that both the pump and the themostat were both brown on the inside and corroded. So that happened to be the issue. Im surprised that the truck is running as well as it is with apparently a blown headgasket.
No matter what they say im not getting rid of this truck till the wheels fall off.
No matter what they say im not getting rid of this truck till the wheels fall off.
strutaeng
Full Access Member
Yikes! I'm glad you figured it out. Better look for a different mechanic, LoL.
A water pump misdiagnosed for a blown engine doesn't inspire confidence if you ask me.
A water pump misdiagnosed for a blown engine doesn't inspire confidence if you ask me.
