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Explain leaky water pump and head gasket replacement

Dieseldad97

Dieseldad97

I now know why.
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Location
Altona, Manitoba Canada
My LLY has leaked antifreeze on and off for 4 years now. I'm thinking of replacing the water pump and T-stats. I'm really shit scared that down the road I'll have signs of head gasket failure. I've read threads with others having this happen.

I have 205K miles, stock with no tuner on the truck and it's not an overheater.

The upper rad hose is soft when cold, and it's never had any bubbles in the tank.

Just looking for some advise or good discussion here. Thanks!
 
The head gasket issue is an issue with LLY's. It has nothing to do with overheating, but how the head gaskets were put together. It's all a crap shoot though, so honestly don't sweat it. It is a possibility, but I would worry more about losing injectors than I would head gaskets.
 
What are the chances a leaky headgasket would be pushing my antifreeze through the waterpump like taking the path of least resistance? Or would the pressure go into my overflow instead? Sorry if I don't make sense as I need some education here LOL.
 
Gerald, if your head gaskets were letting combustion into the coolant, the upper rad hose would be hard and likely blow it out the cap. I think you just have a leaky water pump seal or gasket.
 
Tighten all the hose clamps if they are the warm gear type, I had some start to leak when the cold weather came.
 
I did that last year Leo. I pressurized the system and lay under the truck and saw the leak coming from the pump. I wish it was that easy as a loose clamp haha. The truck is working excellent and I'm worried if I fix the pump...because if the headgaskets blow out after that, I'm gonna have a nice lawn ornament.
 
Why would the head gaskets blow because of a new waterpump. If anything a bad waterpump risks more damage than a new one.

If the waterpump is leaking out the weep hole, change it asap because the coolant will get to the sealed bearing and can cause it to seize.
 
Water pumps let go, that happens once they're 6-7 years old. I wouldn't sweat it, fix the pump, and worry about it if it happens.
 
We had the WP fixed on our 05 a few months ago, and now it's losing coolant and the tank is full of pressure. Pretty much guaranteed HG's? What's the repair bill on that going to be? $3500?
 
Ed HD said:
We had the WP fixed on our 05 a few months ago, and now it's losing coolant and the tank is full of pressure. Pretty much guaranteed HG's? What's the repair bill on that going to be? $3500?
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Most likely unfortunately. It does happen unfortunately due to how they put 5he head gaskets together. I wouldn't reccomend GM head gaskets. They're cheaper, but way to many have had them fail shortly after replacement for me to trust them. Victor reinz is who used to make them for GM until 2011 when they changed suppliers for a gasket that cost 1/5th as much.
 
Dang, sorry to hear that. Better to push pressure into coolant than coolant into cylinder on a shutdown.
 
THEFERMANATOR said:
Most likely unfortunately. It does happen unfortunately due to how they put 5he head gaskets together. I wouldn't reccomend GM head gaskets. They're cheaper, but way to many have had them fail shortly after replacement for me to trust them. Victor reinz is who used to make them for GM until 2011 when they changed suppliers for a gasket that cost 1/5th as much.
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I talked to our local mechanic and he didn't want to do it, but he said another guy had it done by a Diesel shop about 45 min away and it ended up being well over $5k. Is that too high? Dad says there's no way he'd spend that much, he'll trade it in first...
 
Ed HD said:
I talked to our local mechanic and he didn't want to do it, but he said another guy had it done by a Diesel shop about 45 min away and it ended up being well over $5k. Is that too high? Dad says there's no way he'd spend that much, he'll trade it in first...
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That's probably what I would be thinking if I was him...
 
$4-5K seems to be the going rate. Also many have injector issues afterwards because contamination gets into the fuel system once it's opened up.
 
I cant believe I'm the one suggesting it... evans waterless coolant- drill the cap and let it vent the pressure?

Not a fix, but an option. Idk how much the experiment would cost, or how long it would last.

I had an old chevy inline 6 250cid with a cracked block and no money. Overheated in 40 minutes. My boss at the time gave me some kind of oil- (maybe hydraulic? I'm not sure) we drained the coolant and poured in the really thin oil. Drilled a 1/4" hole in the radiator cap. Temps that were normally 180 before the crack were now 250-260. Drove it 6 months this way- actually tried to blow it up once I built my small block, couldn't do it. It did start to smoke- we figure the crack opened up from w.o.t. for 45 minutes while we were inside McDonalds. I mentioned I'm an idiot, right?
 
Keep driving it and theres a good chance you'll need heads too. And with the way the duramax cooling system is designed, any combustion gasses entering the cooling system will quickly start pushing coolant out.
 
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