Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Blown head gasket

So what should I expect to pay for a blown head gasket replacement.Oil in the radiator and water in the oil

98 &1/2 Dodge Cummins, 24 valve, 151 K miles 2500.

Sorry I saw this one so late.

Should cost about $1,500-$2,000 if no other work is needed. I had the same work done back in March, but added a bunch of other stuff that my 1997 really needed. Altogether cost me just over $4,000. Runs much better and more efficiently now. Take the opportunity to tune the injectors, if not replace with good after-market products. Central Motive Power up here north of Denver can tune the stock injectors or build a good set for you that will greatly increase HP and torque. They built and installed new injectors in my 1997 in about 2002. Those are the injectors they just tuned for a local diesel shop as part of the other work in March.

Thanks Taz. I heard from the shop yesterday. The head is warped about .008. at cylinders 5&6. So that means redoing the valves/guides and it will add about $900. It looks about like $3000 now without any injector tuning. I only have so much money to throw at it. Thanks for the reply though.

saddlesore, 3000 is a lot of money, but if the truck is in otherwise good shape it may be a good idea to fix it. The cost of new trucks is crazy.......good luck

Yea,I went into town the other day an stopped at some lots. Way above my retired pay grade for sure. Even $30,00 is big stretch for me, and that would buy a 2008 or so. That would probably mean soaking more money in it.

This truck only has 150 k mile on it. I bought it new in 98, and know everything done to it. Plus it has fold down gooseneck ball, front and rear receiver hitches wired for a winch front and back, after market compression brake, FASS filter/lift pump. All that would cost me $5K to add to another truck. At 75, I won't need a big truck for much longer

Reading all the comments about new diesels,old diesels,etc, mostly it is you need a good savings account to keep them running and it doens't matter if it is Ram, GMC, Chevy or Ford

3 years ago my 2000 F150 had a bad head gasket and a possible warped head. I am the original owner. It didn't take me long to decide to put a Ford crate engine in it. I have not regretted that decision. Sucked that it happened but I really like the truck and couldn't see dropping BIG BUCKS on another truck.

After 6 weeks , my truck is done.Picking it up tomorrow. Quite a story. Turns out there is a Sensor /Actuator on the Turbo that is suppose to shut it down when a certain pressure is reached. ( I might have that a bit wrong,but that was the gist of it. It didn't. So it over pressured, lifted the head , ( stretched the head bolts ) and blew the head gasket. Overheated and warped the head. That was .008. Shaved the head and then had to do a complete valve job to get the valves back up in the head and new guides ($900). Clogged the radiator ( new one now), clogged oil channels ( flushed now), new sensor/actuator.

When initial firing up, the filters in my FASS system were need of replacement ,so the shop did that too.

I was afraid to ask the price, but probably now in the $4000 realm.

Coupled with the $1800 in hay I need to pick up to night, my check book will be considerably lighter, if not empty.I think I'm done with diesels.

Damn! Hope it wasn’t as bad as you thought and the truck it’s running great

Truck is running great now. $3400

It stings in the beginning but it sure beats truck payments....

Glad to hear it’s running great!