Funny thing with mine is I did have pooling oil and oil consumption, but no pinging and no vacuum in the crankcase. My truck is sort of a bastard with things like this.

 

Every truck his its itch!

 

anyone else, also i have what i think is a header leak but cant find it. gasket is good , bolts are tight , someone said collector but how do i know? i hear a tick when i get above 2500 rpm its not the pinging its like a exhaust tick

 

I know this thread is a million years old, but I was hoping you were still around and could answer 2 questions about it for me.

ONE: How do you fix it "Forever?"

TWO: Why would it cost $200 to do it yourself when the gasket is only $10. Is the rest of the cost part of this "Forever" solution?

 

I know this question wasn't directed at me, but...

One: A new aluminum plenum plate (some argue that the cause of the blown gaskets, or a contributor to it, is the factory steel plate on the aluminum manifold), new slightly shorter bolts (provided with the new plenum plate from Hughes Engines. Some argue that the factory bolts are a bit to long, which causes the factory gasket failure), and a better gasket (Felpro gasket is really good). This way, whether the plenum plate crowd or plenum bolt crowd is correct, you're doing both, so it won't matter.

Two: The plate/bolts kit and a new gasket from the auto store will usually cost under $200 combined. A mechanic will charge about $400-$500 just in labor to do the job, and their usual fix for a blown plenum gasket is just to replace it with another factory gasket (that may last 5 miles or 10,000 miles, but it will eventually blow again because you are fixing the symptom of the problem, not the problem itself).