I will be doing my head gasket this weekend, I'm feeling a little intimidated but I'm pretty sure I can do it. At any rate, I was trying to diagnose what I thought was an injector issue on Saturday and tried to pull the injector rail to see if one of my injectors was leaking down. I got all the requisite items of the top of the motor including the four bolts holding the injector rail. When I went to pull the rail, nothing, I got my injectors wiggling around but they would not come out. Any suggestions?

As far as the head job goes...

I'm hoping to do like this guy and not have to take everything apart.

http://www.customdakotas.com/forums/...et-change.html

same motor different truck I realize.

 

Plan on replacing the o-rings that are currently holding them in the bore----put a light smear of silicone grease on the new ones and a very light smear in the injector bore when you put them back in.

 

Prepare for a wait on getting the head gasket set. Most places have a 3-5 day lead time on getting them for you so preorder.

Second, make sure you lay everything out in order and keep it ordered to exactly where it goes and in what direction. The surfaces of all the pieces have mated to each other in the specific orientation. Changing that can cause excess wear and/or a noise. It is easier to do a head gasket with the motor out of the truck but can be done without removing the motor.

Third, think about spending the extra money and change the timing chain and water pump if that has not been done within the last 100K miles. It's always a good idea to keep major maintenance/repairs done at the same time.

Plan on the truck being down for 3 days after receiving the gaskets. If you are anything like me, you will spend a whole day just cleaning your parts. You may be able to do everything in one day. Always plan for things to take longer than they actually do.