Coolant Pressure Test/Head Gaskets Good?

[03RaptorCV]

After running a hose and 15psi pressure gauge to my drivers seat I started my truck and left the cap off while I ran it on high idle until warm. Once warm I tightened degas cap and went for a drive. Driving normally the PSI was around 1psi for a while and eventually went to around 4psi until I got to this loop road with good hills where I proceded to get on it hard going from 30 to 80mph a couple of times while going up hill. The highest psi I achieved was around 9psi and after releasing the pressure from the cap again and going back doen the loop road and getting on it several more times my psi never went over 3psi.

So from what I've read I feel my head gaskets are currently in good condition. This was in temperatures of around 35*f, but I put the engine under a real good load several times and the psi never shot up quickly at all.

Does it matter that the outside temp was on the cool side and does everyone agree that my head gaskets seem fine?

[03RaptorCV]

Anybody have any thoughts? Where are the 6.0 gurus?

[SharkDiver]

If the trk was warmed up when you started then your psi is fine.. It should stay under 10psi under load. Why are you even checking? Are you having problems?

[colonel angus]

You look hard enough you'll find something either wrong or about to go wrong.

It's best just to drive 'em until you hear it break.

D

[03RaptorCV]

Originally Posted by SharkDiver

If the trk was warmed up when you started then your psi is fine.. It should stay under 10psi under load. Why are you even checking? Are you having problems?

My degas cap was puking coolant, but I believe that is possibly because of a bad cap. Now that I replaced the cap everything seems to be fine.

Also, I'm about to replace the oil cooler, do an egr delete, and upgrade the dummy plugs, stand pipes, hpop stc fitting, turbo oil lines, banjo bolts.
With my coolant filter and a soon to follow flush and swap to some CAT ELC I figure if I can avoid the head gaskets and studs for now then I might not ever need them since I'll be rid of most all the problematic BS with this engine. My FICM is already beefed up, I've got an SCT x3 with IDP tunes, blue spring upgrade, gauges for everything I need to monitor and then some with the Scangauge II.

[03RaptorCV]

Originally Posted by colonel angus

You look hard enough you'll find something either wrong or about to go wrong.

It's best just to drive 'em until you hear it break.

D

I'm mainly trying to decide if I need to worry about my heads when I do my egr delete.

I also think that in many cases a little pm with these engines and you'll save yourself a lot of money down the road. Catch the oil cooler clogging and you have a good chance of saving your head gaskets from blowing and egr from rupturing. Do everything I mention in the previous post and follow good OCI's and maintenance (fuel filters, coolant, etc...) and you might not be hearing much of anything break.

[03RaptorCV]

any other thoughts?

[hound]

Did you tap and thread the cap to run the line to the pressure gauge?

[colonel angus]

Originally Posted by hound

Did you tap and thread the cap to run the line to the pressure gauge?

no, you simply place a tee in line between the radiator sand degauss tank.

[hound]

[ That seems painless versus messing with the cap. thx ]

Raptor, it sounds like you really have everything covered. More a matter of money and time with the head gaskets. I'm looking forward to replacing my intake manifold, putting in a new oil cooler, blue spring and the little odds and ends. But I'm not going to do the heads myself for lack of time, space, skill, and proper tools.

If you have it in the shop that might be a different story, especially if you push it or have a tuner.

These are work trucks and I've blown all kinds of heads on gassers. It's always a real mess and obvious. Seems like it's a bit different on these, but I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that the little coolant burps I see once in a blue moon are just the EGR and heat issues. My EOT and ECT always look good.

When I have had wet white smoke, it was always on very cold days, just the first 5-10 min and having to gun it to get out from being buried by the plow.