ok this is my first poist ever on a forum! I need your advice please here is the quick story...

Purchased a 2nd gen 5.9L cummins truck first diesel truck ever and love it however long story short and $$$$ later I am in this situation.
Was not comfortable doing my own head gasket and my pole barn did not have concrete yet so I decided to take it to a shop to do the head gasket and upgraded head studs all was fine for a few weeks, having new concrete in the pole barn and set up for repairs now I did my VP44, Tappet cover, cam position sensor and put on an ATS intake, ATS 3 piece high flow exhaust and ATS 3000 Turbo that is sold as a stage 1 drop in safe for stock trucks.

A couple weeks later the head gasket blew and the shop is claiming that the ATS 3000 turbo is the cause and that they are not going to waranty it. I called the place I purchased it from, ATS, another shop somone recommended, and talked to a couple guys at the gym that have diesel trucks and hot rods and everyone agrees that there is no way the turbo blew a head gasket and that the shop is just trying to get out of doing it under warranty. The shop told me that they need to pull the head out and send it to get fire ringed and I need a fire ring head gasket! from my research and talking to people fireringing is only needed in 500+ HP engines.

The shop is saying that that the advertising is misleading and that it spools too quickly and that blew the gasket. Is that possible?

So any advice other than getting an attorney? I mean it would be cheaper to pull the head myself pay $100 for it to be milled/fireringed and buy the $220 firering head gasket (and learn something in the process) Sorry I am new to diesels and to posting on forums so I am flying by the seat of my pants and learning along the way.

 

What's the quality of the shop.

Drive pressure is what lifts heads and blows gaskets. You did new studs? was the Hot retorque done on the studs? I think its like 200 miles of easy driving or something a retorque. Does it have bigger injectors? what tuner? If looking to make any kind of power i always recommend doing o rings, fire rings i feel are only necessary on high power performance applications, a 24v with a box tuner and turbo will be lucky to hit 500. There is a difference between fire rings and orings so make sure to clarify what they meant.

EDIT: might have to clarify the hot torque, I looked through several different kits and none of the instructions specified this, but I'm just sure i remember this happening alot back in the day

Also welcome to the forum, and fill out your signature which truck information for further/better help.

 

What was issue with the first gasket? How much boost did the new turbo give you over stock?

 

The quality of the shop is in question when I mentioned where I took it at the gym the response was no good for them. The shop put new upgraded studs on it I do not know if the shop did any hot retorque and I doubt if they would tell me if I asked or just say they did. Stock injectors I was planning on new injectors and a tuner soon (no tuner currently on it) they specifically said it needed to be fireringed and that blew me away because its basicly a stock truck thats why I went with the ATS aurora 3000. It is a dodge ram 2500 Manual trans with 360k miles on it and as a daily driver (about 50 miles a day) all I wanted was a good running truck.

The first gasket was leaking a little coolant passenger side I thought it was the water pump at first. As far as I know the turbo on there was stock and may be the original Holset I looked it up and as far as I can tell it does 23-24psi The new one does 30-39 according to the ATS tech. my guage was showing 30PSI when I would accelerate.

AURORA 3000 (approx. 65 lbs./per min)
• Capable of 450 Horsepower
• Quick Spooling
• Lower EGT’s towing
• Increased Fuel Economy
• Compressor wheel: 58mm inducer (2.3 in) - 7 Blade
• Compressor wheel: 83mm exducer - 14 Blade
• Turbine wheel: 74mm inducer - 11 Blade
• Turbine wheel: 65mm exducer - 11 Blade
• A/R housings: .76 or .85
• T3 exhaust flange

 

To me there is no way a stock 24v with stock injectors, stock vp44 and no tuner popped a properly installed head gasket. that .85 A/R is a little tight but on a vp44 i see no issue, it should spool quick and easy with minimal mods, but you still don't have the fuel to make much over 30 psi, and the drive pressure and air temp should be significantly lower then the stock HX/HY/manifold the truck would have had on it.

 

From what I am reading, you don't need fire-rings until you are running north of 50PSI of boost..... don't really need studs until around there either.. The fact that you have studs, tells me the shop screwed something up, or, it should have been re-torqued at some point, and wasn't.... (which would also be on the shop, as they should KNOW this.)

 

Yeah I just picked it up, looks like I am learning how to do my own head gasket becausew they will not warranty it because they say the ATS 3000 turbo blew the gasket SMH

 

small claims threats can do wonders, but I'm guessing the turbo line is the cover my booty story. you'd need some high dollar experts to testify against it since they did warn you, and its still hard to prove it, when in reality in practice everyone knows the truth

 

Thank you all for the responses! Even though I was unable to convince the shop it really helped me with my argument.

They wanted another $2,000 to redo the head gasket and Small claims court would probally cost me some time and money so that is how they get away with this crap. For anoter 2k I can redo this head job 10 times myself LOL Hppefully I get it right the first time, I am usually pretty good at following directions and am pretty mecanically inclined. Like I said my shop was not set up when it happened and I opted to have someone else do it (lesson learned) I asked what head studs they used and they said Xotic so I was also frustrated there because I cant wait to get the gasket out of there and see if I can identify what they used because why would you use Xotic studs then put a crappy gasket in it? like dodgetruck2 said " no way a stock 24v with stock injectors, stock vp44 and no tuner popped a properly installed head gasket." This is what I am finding talking to people and reading about it. Well if I am doing it I am going to plan for future updgrades and go overboard and will probally take it to the machine shop and have them firering it and make sure that sucker does not blow again and give me the option for a tuner, injectors and a bigger turbo if I chose to do so.

 

Xotic seems to be a popular brand, I'm not familiar with them though. I know they run a little cheaper then ARP. Again at the power level you're running stock head bolts would be find, and I'm sure Xotic studs are quality enough to be better then stock head bolts

Take real good care on disassembly you may be able to find the cause of failure, lots of pictures and documentation also