Possibly my first ever blown head gasket

[Odyssey USA]

First one in over 30 years of owning cars if my guess is correct.

Recent history-

21 Rubicon 3.6. Currently 109k miles. Mostly highway fwiw. Has never been overheated.

Did a full coolant flush twice around 100k miles. About the same time, all new spark plugs and latest oil cooler. 106k, dealer did the full cam job on both banks.

After the cam work, ~107k miles. I had a heater hose spring a pinhole leak. I noticed immediately because it happened as soon as I was pulling onto my street. It was not driven in the meantime until I acquired the parts to fix it. Still no leaking.

Today-
Got a p0303. With the check engine light on for a couple of days now, i’ve noticed it’s been running a little rougher in the morning. Today I just moved the jeep a few feet after letting it warm up enough for the idle to come down. When I shut it off and closed the door, I smelled a whiff of antifreeze. I think it came from the exhaust because I was still in the garage. I immediately went to smell under the hood and didn’t smell anything unlike the pinhole leak or the leak back when I had a 2.0. No visible leaks. No crusty pink scale seen.

What it takes-
From a DIY perspective, what would be your prescribed steps on confirming my suspicion and investigating other possibilities in case I’m wrong such as an injector etc. properly and then, worst case scenario, what would be the best way to determine all the parts that I would need if I was doing the passenger side? I do have a decent resolution borescope on hand btw.

Is Alldata DIY good enough to walk me through it?

Thanks for any guidance. It’s a newer engine for me and not sure on all the tools, parts, supplies I’d need. I’m old school small block Mopar and Chevy, cam in block guy. Last time I had heads off was a ‘99 Dakota RT so it’s been a minute.

Any words of wisdom?

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[SadRobot]

When mine blew the shop put a camera down into the cylinder and was able to see coolant down there. I'd start there since it's pretty easy to get down into the passenger side cylinders with a borescope.

You could also do a combustion leak test although I guess those aren't super accurate. Mine passed that test even though I had a blown head gasket.

 

[Odyssey USA]

When mine blew the shop put a camera down into the cylinder and was able to see coolant down there. I'd start there since it's pretty easy to get down into the passenger side cylinders with a borescope.

You could also do a combustion leak test although I guess those aren't super accurate. Mine passed that test even though I had a blown head gasket.

That’s what I was thinking of trying first. Pretty easy. You know what the leak test procedure entails?

Thanks for the feedback. Hope you’re good to go now.

 

[SadRobot]

That’s what I was thinking of trying first. Pretty easy. You know what the leak test procedure entails?

Thanks for the feedback. Hope you’re good to go now.

I bought one of these kits. If the fluid changes color to green or yellow you have a leak somewhere. Mine never changed color though. My coolant level was very low though so it had to have been going somewhere.

 

[RenegadeT]

man that sucks, and sounds exaclty like my case. I brought it to the local dealer for diagnosis, hoping to get some good faith warranty. They claimed to have scoped cylinder one and saw coolant, but in hindsight, I believe they simply took my word for it and waited for me to authorize 3400 to replace passenger side head gasket. Fawk them. After i brought it home, I realized the trail mud splash was still on the valve cover and bolts holding the coils in; no way they touched anything underhood. So now it sits in my driveway, just an exhaust manifold and 8 head bolts away from yanking the head off, and like you, I'm wondering/hoping head gasket is truly problem.

 

[alphawolff]

man that sucks, and sounds exaclty like my case. I brought it to the local dealer for diagnosis, hoping to get some good faith warranty. They claimed to have scoped cylinder one and saw coolant, but in hindsight, I believe they simply took my word for it and waited for me to authorize 3400 to replace passenger side head gasket. Fawk them. After i brought it home, I realized the trail mud splash was still on the valve cover and bolts holding the coils in; no way they touched anything underhood. So now it sits in my driveway, just an exhaust manifold and 8 head bolts away from yanking the head off, and like you, I'm wondering/hoping head gasket is truly problem.

If a vehicle comes into the shop with a cold start misfire and the coolant bottle is empty we don't even perform a diagnosis anymore. It's that common.

 

[Odyssey USA]

If a vehicle comes into the shop with a cold start misfire and the coolant bottle is empty we don't even perform a diagnosis anymore. It's that common.

Last week I topped off from the minimum up to the maximum line. I just went and looked at it and now I am at an inch below the reservoir parting line. So yeah….

The level held steady until last week but I thought I’d just top it off when cold. Check engine light happened to come on a day or two later.

 

[SadRobot]

Last week I topped off from the minimum up to the maximum line. I just went and looked at it and now I am at an inch below the reservoir parting line. So yeah….

The level held steady until last week but I thought I’d just top it off when cold. Check engine light happened to come on a day or two later.

Mine never got as far as a CEL but a big coolant loss over a few days plus I had the cam/rocker ticking issue was what had me bring it to a shop. Mine happened at about 108k miles.

I guess the good news is that this has happened to so many of us on the forums that now there are a few threads with pictures and process of replacing the heads.

 

[Odyssey USA]

Mine never got as far as a CEL but a big coolant loss over a few days plus I had the cam/rocker ticking issue was what had me bring it to a shop. Mine happened at about 108k miles.

I guess the good news is that this has happened to so many of us on the forums that now there are a few threads with pictures and process of replacing the heads.

I need to dig and find those. First hand feedback definitely helps, even if you have a service manual.

I got some quotes from Benny on parts but wondered if I’d need an exhaust manifold gasket set.

 

[SadRobot]

I need to dig and find those. First hand feedback definitely helps, even if you have a service manual.

I got some quotes from Benny on parts but wondered if I’d need an exhaust manifold gasket set.

I'm pretty sure I just reused the original gaskets but @roaniecowpony would know better than me as I think at this point I've purged the whole experience from my memory.

 

[roaniecowpony]

First one in over 30 years of owning cars if my guess is correct.

Recent history-

21 Rubicon 3.6. Currently 109k miles. Mostly highway fwiw. Has never been overheated.

Got a p0303. Did a full coolant flush twice around 100k miles. About the same time, all new spark plugs and latest oil cooler. 106k, dealer did the full cam job on both banks.

After the cam work, ~107k miles. I had a heater hose spring a pinhole leak. I noticed immediately because it happened as soon as I was pulling onto my street. It was not driven in the meantime until I acquired the parts to fix it. Still no leaking.

Today-
With the check engine light on for a couple of days now, i’ve noticed it’s been running a little rougher in the morning. Today I just moved the jeep a few feet after letting it warm up enough for the idle to come down. When I shut it off and closed the door, I smelled a whiff of antifreeze. I think it came from the exhaust because I was still in the garage. I immediately went to smell under the hood and didn’t smell anything unlike the pinhole leak or the leak back when I had a 2.0. No visible leaks. No crusty pink scale seen.

What it takes-
From a DIY perspective, what would be your prescribed steps on confirming my suspicion and investigating other possibilities in case I’m wrong such as an injector etc. properly and then, worst case scenario, what would be the best way to determine all the parts that I would need if I was doing the passenger side? I do have a decent resolution borescope on hand btw.

Is Alldata DIY good enough to walk me through it?

Thanks for any guidance. It’s a newer engine for me and not sure on all the tools, parts, supplies I’d need. I’m old school small block Mopar and Chevy, cam in block guy. Last time I had heads off was a ‘99 Dakota RT so it’s been a minute.

Any words of wisdom?

The only head gaskets that have blown on my cars have been engines running over 30 psi of boost. First one was when I was in high school drag racing at Orange County drag strip, now long gone... until I got a Pentastar.

 

[PotterJLUR]

Jeep Tech here, I always pressure up the cooling system with a cooling system pressure tester, then use a bore scope camera to look into the effected cylinder, after a few minutes you will normally see some coolant starting to collect on top of the piston.

 

[Odyssey USA]

I’m curious about exhaust manifold gaskets and head bolts. That far into it, I’d be open to studs too but it might be newer territory in torquing those.

Anyone know the thread spec on the head bolts and if the threads start at the deck surface? I’d want to chase the threads too.

 

[CarbonSteel]

A used oil analysis will tell you quickly and cheaply if you have coolant leaking into the oil.

At 55K, mine developed a cracked head or block (confirmed not a head gasket)--it was the first ever engine that did that for me.

Kicked it to the curb at 70K before it got worse.

 

[Odyssey USA]

A used oil analysis will tell you quickly and cheaply if you have coolant leaking into the oil.

At 55K, mine developed a cracked head or block (confirmed not a head gasket)--it was the first ever engine that did that for me.

Kicked it to the curb at 70K before it got worse.

Thought about doing that too. Blackstone should be good enough for that.

Well, I can’t say it hasn’t crossed my mind. Crossed my mind when the cams went but I’m just not in a position to go and add more debt. Even if I was, I’d think I’d want to wait to see if the 5.7 comes in a Wrangler….cam in block and more familiar territory.

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