Hi all, brief recap, over the winter did the water pump on my 5.9. Then discovered the plenum oil leak after noticing oil was burning. Did the plenum, timing chain, plugs, rotor etc. Then was getting pinging under load. Figured it was the iridium plugs after reading the forums. Got stock plugs 1 degree colder then went in to check the cylinders and saw a bit of coolant in the the 7 and 8 cylinders. So Head gasket is leaking. Now I am at the third major repair on the truck and upto the heads. Never done heads.

Here are some photos. Does anyone have any advice on things to be aware of when I go to remove the heads? First I have to see if the intake bolts will come off (hopefully not break). Then I have to remove the bolts holding the rockers in place and put them in a cardboard in the same order. Then I need to pull out the pushrods and again keep them in same order. Then I need to take the head bolts off and pull the heads off right?

Any tips and or snag points anyone would like to mention?

I still don't know if my heads are cracked at this point. Looking on ebay I am a bit scared at the odessa heads and the reviews from others in their feedback. Looks like the other guys selling cylinder heads also have some bad feedback.

 

I did mine a couple years ago and found what I thought a nice trick. A cast iron head on it's own is pretty heavy and has no real hand holds. At the time of pulling and installing the head, the push rods and rocker arms are off. I put two on the rocker arms on loosely with two of the rocker bolts. The rounded bottoms of the loose rockers make nice handles for handling the head.

 

Thanks Don, that's actually a pretty smart idea! Assume you later put the push rods in after you had seated everything. Do you recall anything about when you reinstalled the rocker arms and torqued them to spec? Did you have to manually turn the engine so the cylinder was up or down? Also any issues with getting the manifold bolts off? Anything break, did you heat them up? Did you put in new exhaust bolts?

 

Look into the EQ heads. You can get them from stock to over sized valves and full port/polish. Lot of people sell them so look around. And get quality head gaskets(felpro) no el cheapo stuff!
https://www.jegs.com/p/JEGS-Performa...95951/10002/-1

 

I was going to Harlan Sharpe roller rockers, so I just followed the instructions from HS and the Dodge FSM. Yes I did rotate the engine crank manually as needed to have cam lobes down and valves seated as the rockers were installed.

 

The EQ heads look to be over $1000 bucks which is pretty pricey. I have looked at couple of ebay places and some like the ones I have seen recommended here (odessa) have some really scarey reviews even for there normal non eq heads. Found a really good read up on what heads are available for these magnum engines over at hughes. On the fence on the what to do with the heads, still in the process of taking things off, down to the exhaust pipes.

Don did you have a head gasket leak or just go in to put new heads? what did you end up using?

I just saw the warning in the FSM, ironically all it says is "CAUTION: When tightening the rocker arm bolts, make sure the piston in that cylinder is NOT at TDC. Contact between the valves and piston could occur." So sounds like I just have to look down the plug hole and make sure the piston isn't near the top when I go to tighten and torque the rocker arm bolt back in.

 

I was just going to do a 'simple' rocker swap. But.... I buggered one new rocker bolt, didn't get the Harlan kit spacer in right. On first crank a valve stick open from binding, piston hit it, bent the valve, game over on 'simple'. The best speed shop in Albuquerque is 2 miles from my house, so they got the repair nod. They determined that both of my heads were cracked, said half of then do. I opted for simple cast iron replacement. They got them, did all the valve cleanup and install, and replaced the bent one.

Of course I finally added the rollers in the assemble. It went together perfectly and started on the first crank like nothing happened. It's 2.5 yrs later now, still runs great and zero leaks anywhere.

 

Oh man sorry to hear that happened to you Don, this is why I am bit nervous when it comes to tightening the rocker bolts (a bent valve would be a major crush for me). I have also seen many threads saying that the walls on these heads are literal junk and thin. This is my third major tear into this engine so I am at my time and financial end point.