Hi everyone, so I had another thread on here trying to figure out pinging on my 5.9 after changing my plenum with the haynes kit, seems like only 93 octane was stopping the pinging under load. Advice was to run cooler plugs and 180 thermostat. So this weekend I was going to do a mopar combustion chamber cleaner (mccc) piston soak before changing to my new cooler plugs (was running iridium plugs which must have been hotter then the stock range). Anyways I wanted to see how effective the soak would be so took my plugs out and took my endscope to all the cylinders. When I got to the #7 rear drivers side cylinder, I see coolant. Unreal! to say the least after just having done the plenum, waterpump, timing chain, trans cooler and upgrading the front braking system last month. Last week I thought I smelled a bit of coolant at startup which I thought was freaking weird, no loss of coolant and the truck seemed to be running fine aside from the pinging. The truck has a 110k on it right now. I also saw inside the #8 passenger cylinder what looked like a bit of oily residue on upper part of the head and on the bottom what appeared to be a clean spot where coolant is probably hitting just like the other side. I am left wondering could the plenum issue fix and running the wrong plugs have caused a head gasket leak or is it just screwed up timing. Man I am literally at my whits end.

Never done a head gasket job on a car so this will be my first. Aside from changing out the gaskets what else should I be thinking about here and what other problems are possible?

Things which have me wondering: (PS this is for a Durango 5.9 - 01 - Seems the RAM guys seem to do more engine work so that is why I am posting in here )
1. Will the exhaust manifold bolts come off or could the break in the engine? Should I torch them before attempting to get them off.
2. Is it common for a head gasket to leak on two different sides? It looks like the passenger side has a leak but didn't see coolant
3. I have read that these heads have weak side walls which can crack, but I won't know till I get them off. So not sure if its just the head gasket or the heads.
4. Should I get new heads, or just reuse mine if its just the head gasket? Should I upgrade the heads? Pros/Cons?






Video of cylinder #7, could get video of #8 as my camera ran out of of power.


Video below is using the mirror of camera so its showing part of head and walls. I see what looks like an oily slick which I found odd.

 

Head gaskets can go in any place. If your budget allows I'd her new heads and then take them to a local shop to get them polished. It's let straight forward to change the gasket, as for the manifold bolts it's like any other vehicle they could break inside the head. Heat NEVER hurts. One last thing since you are there and if you have a big budget get headers for it to. I seen one here a guy said out of 20 heads here was lucky if 1 wasn't cracked.

 

So when machine shop polishes the heads I assume that means the clean them right? As far the manifold bolts I read someone that mentioned just cutting the head of the bolts, but then I am thinking how the hell would you get them off slide them out? I know the bolts that connect to the pipe headed to the cats are rusted as hell, can't imagine those will come off at all.

Both head gaskets going on each side still seems like a stretch, wonder if the the pinging issue caused this.

 

Yes they clean them and polish tighten for better flow. Even new heads needed it. The Y pipe bolts will most likely need cut. Manifold bolts again use heat and penetrating fluid if you can. It could be a stretch but it might just be that. Only way coolant can get into the cylinders is the head gasket.