Might not be a head causing your coolant leak in the oil. Could be the intake plenum as well. When I pulled mine, I noticed that I had a coolant at the rear passenger side head water jacket. The coolant was leaking around the intake gasket and then running down the back side of the motor. Looked to me like there wasn't much holding back the coolant from flowing the other way into the valley of the engine. Worth a check before pulling a head anyway.

 

Not really a puddle, I guess I exagerated a bit. But there was definently a oil film in there. I could see that it was still wet and dark like slightly used oil (not coolant or water or anything).

Well, I figured since I am already in there I should still check the heads for cracks between the intake and exhaust (or anywhere else for that matter). Besides, all I really have to take out at that point is the valve covers (which I intend to remove and paint anyways) and then the heads.

Thanks for the tip though!

 

A film of oil is perfectly normal. Have you done a vacuum test per the TSB?

 

Good point. Better safe than sorry!

 

No vacuum test, don't have a tester. When i looked in there I could as much as I could see was a brown tinge with what appeared to be air bubbles in it. This was about an hour and a half after I shut the truck off! I thought that was a sure sign of the plenum being blown? Maybe tomorrow if I get a chance then I will take a pic for you guys to check out!

 

Resally wow thats what my truck has does it have to be fixed soon ? thats prob why i have not much ppower

 

I suppose you could drive your truck for a bit with a plenum leak, but the sooner you could fix it the better. It certainly isn't doing any good to be burning the oil through your engine. Plus on top of that it is the equivalent to a vacuum leak from the engine into the intake which can cause negative effects as well.

The actual gaskets are only a few bucks, but if you know a decent bit about engine repair and the miles are up there on your truck then I would recommend tearing the heads off while your at it to check for any cracks or issues. It would only take maybe an extra half hour to hour to pull the heads out and check em. Plus you could get a good shot at cleaning them too!

 

dblj--Just some friendly advice: before you decide to dive into the engine, I think it would be very worthwhile for you to get a vacuum gauge and follow the TSB as zman says. Also, I would highly recommend that you run a compression test and leakdown test before you consider just taking the heads off for kicks. The reason being is the heads on a high mileage engine are most likely warped to some degree and when you take them off, you may not get them to hold a seal again without machining them flat again. To me, taking the heads off an engine is like breaking the Seventh Seal -- you can open up a big can of worms that you're not prepared for. Just check it out thoroughly first using the proper diagnostic tools. It would suck if you tore down a prefectly good engine.

 

Point taken Rex. If I do end up tearing the heads out I planned on getting them machined flat again anyways though. Does anyone know where I can get a vacuum tester or a compression tester for relatively cheap but a decent product?

 

www.harborfreight.com

They have some brick and mortar stores too.