HG PM Question (1 Viewer)

[bpenn1980]

I've got some time next month and I was thinking about taking a week to get the head gasket swapped. The problem I'm up against is I dont have a machine shop locally that will be able to do the work. I dont have any problems with the truck now, but I was thinking it would be good peace of mind to have the head, valves, etc inspected at a shop instead of just cleaning everything up and slapping it back on the block with a new gasket.

What say you? Head work required or not?

By the way, I'll also be replacing fuel injectors, valve cover gasket and spark plug gaskets.

 

[Pin_Head]

I can't see doing a head gasket as preventative maintenence, but if you go in, go all in. There are lots of machine shops in LA.

 

[bpenn1980]

Not doing it in LA. Why cant you see doing it as PM?

 

[kidglove13]

why waste your time?
If you want to do it and put all that money out go ahead
Like Pinhead said if you are going to be in there you might as well make it worth you while
The list could be endless of things to do.
Its not a PM item to most do and I bet that there are not that many who did it just as PM.
If it aint broke dont fix it is my 2 cents

 

[Pin_Head]

The majority of headgaskets (>75%) don't fail.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

 

[B Legit]

I will go ahead and agree with the consensus here and say that the more I learn about this, the more I would say that doing it as PM without any signs or issues does not make sense. Spend some time doing the PHH if you haven't already, and other cooling system mtnce. I did some work for a guy the other day that had a 95 with 328k miles on it and the head had never been off of it. I did my headgasket back in January because I was getting combustion in the cooling system, I took my head to the machine shop, had them do all the work to the head that they could do, put it all back together only to find out the the engine had been severely overheated by a PO and that the block was warped. Now my perfectly flat head and new gasket have got water escaping on the exhaust side of the block. If it ain't broke, I say don't try to fix it. If your not doing lots of crazy towing and your cooling system looks good I would leave it.

 

[badmuthatrucka]

I had to replace mine, but if there was no problem, I would not have done it.

As has been said on a few other threads, there is no set mile-mark where everything needs to be done. So, unless there is a reason to replace the HG, I would not do it.

PM is short for preventive maintenance, not proactive maintenance, just to be clear. The HG replacement is more of a repair item, fix only when broken.

But the decision is yours.