Thermagasket, anyone try it?

[DELTAJOHN]

I know this may start a flame war, but I'm curious if it would work on a 6.0.

Thermagasket is designed to repair leaking head gaskets, it is expensive. (about $199. to treat a diesel like ours) Supposedly it was designed to repair big industrial diesels. My friend has used it on 2 gassers, and it worked as advertised, both cars run perfect now. I'm curious if someone has had a chance to try it on a work truck with high miles. I would love to try it in a beater, And see if it works.

[colinmitchell111]

If its that crap you pour in your coolant, it will plug your oil cooler. These things plug easily enough by themselves, adding something that is designed to plug stuff will make it go boom in no time.

[DELTAJOHN]

What if you are wrong? Anyone have PROOF, one way or another?

[drunk on diesel]

you'll sure have proof if you do it!

[bismic]

Add me to the list that thinks it is unwise.

[howell_jd]

These products are typically "maskers" of a latent problem. Let me be precise, head gasket failure is a SYMPTOM not a defect in most cases. Head gaskets fail due to a problem that develops rather than a defect in the head gasket itself.

Introducing a material to eliminate the effects of a head gasket failure does not prevent a subsequent head gasket failure. The Thermagasket website RXAuto.com indicates that head gasket failure occurs due to overheating...so if overheating is allowed then the gasket fails...Thermagasket won't prevent the engine from overheating again (the cause could have been an inadvertantly loosened cap among myriad other reasons but the product won't take those conditions away).

In the 6.0L engine - a very-high-compression diesel engine (quite different from a high-compression gasoline engine too by-the-way) - head gasket failure is often the result of coolant introduction to the air intake through the EGR cooler allowing the creation of steam that overstretches the head bolts beyond their clamping capability resulting in a head gasket failure; put in a "masking agent" and the bolts remain stretched outside of the proper length, the intake may still be able to admit coolant from the EGR cooler. This gets to the very insightful post earlier by colinmitchell111 on the propensity of the 6.0L oil cooler to act as a gravity trap. Since Thermagasket seems to require heat to chemically activate and is not a rubber compound that seats at a pressure differential (like many stop-a-leak products), this compound may very well begin its activation within the oil cooler itself and actually provide additional restriction in an already tight-tolerance pathway due to hot oil proximity.

I acknowledge no direct first-hand experience with the product and so I will not "flame" - I think it is a poor method of discussion in any case - but I note again that a compression-ignition diesel engine has much greater pressures than even a high-comression spark-ignition gasoline engine. While Thermagasket is indicated to work in diesel engines, stretched bolts (or studs) of even fractional millimeters won't contract and it is not as simple as tightening these back down as may be possible in a gasoline engine.

Find a beater and give a report - I would be interested in the results...but I remain skeptical (primarily due to the use of a liquid-to-liquid oil cooler - unique to the 6.0 or at least very uncommon).

I echo bismic's observation in closing "Add me to the list that thinks it is unwise."

Jonathan

[HMM]

Never tried it but I believe in the fix it right, fix it once method.
My wife however thinks I over do it on a lot of things including vehicle maintenance/repairs. But in my defense, I usually have a line when I do plan to sell something because it is very evident that I take care of my stuff. Including my kept woman and daughter...lol

[Brieldo]

If you decide to undertake this, be prepared to not only fix the head gaskets properly when it fails to solve the problem, but also fix/replace any parts this junk plugs up and any subsequent damage.

[Karls03]

I would offer this, I had a used 5.0 once, and the heater didn't work. Any guesses what the cause was? Radiator stop leak had PLUGGED the heater core. Once blown out with water and compressed air, VIOLIA heat. These "quick" fixes are dumb chemicals that don't know the difference between the hole in the head gasket and the oil cooler passage.

But by all means, pour this snake oil in and let us know how it works out for you. Just don't be upset when you end up changing the heater core and radiator when you have to change your head gaskets. I'd reather bite the bullet and do the HG/studs/oil cooler R&R myself.