BurbMan wrote:
That's a lot of cabbage to replace head gaskets....If it was me (and I had another daily driver to use for now) I would put it in the garage and go at it. At 100K miles, I would take this opportunity to go through the top end of the motor....valve cover gaskets, send the injectors out for cleaning, hoses, t-stat, anything else that was due for maintenance cleaning or replacement.
Is there something specific to a diesel that makes this job much harder than on a gasser?
Taking apart the fuel system is more complicated than a gas motor. Also just getting to the heads take LOTS more time. Usually if the heads come off, common practice to rebuild the turbo at the same time (blown head gaskets will cause turbo rusting, plus oil contamination) and everything take way longer to properly clean. Most of the parts usually require hot solvent or ultrasonic cleaning.
Price actually sounds reasonable to me. Most Ford 6.0 head jobs run about 7k since that generally also includes new injectors and EGR/OIL coolers and a new glow plug wire harness too.
