The next time someone says their truck is having a problem with one of these the first thing you should look for is how much caked on mud is on your engine and in your radiator. This is the second truck I've bought for next to nothing because of a blown head gasket.
The truck i'm working on right now is a d2 and I really figured it had a slipped liner. I bought a lesser mileage block just in case but when I got the engine out and pulled the heads I found it was just a blown head gasket. I blame this on two things.
I knew the truck before I bought it and it did have a head gasket job done already about 10k miles or so before I bought it. While I pulled the engine apart I noticed a bunch of things that lead me to believe that the guy was a hillbilly mechanic. A lot of bolts were very loose including an exhaust manifold bolt. Those usually don't walk their way out if they were torqued correctly in the first place. This leads me to believe that the heads weren't torqued down correctly also.
The second thing I blame this on is the amount of caked on grease/mud on the engine and in the radiator. I know everybody is so afraid to power wash or steam clean their engines because of horror stories about them dieing and not starting but it is possible to do this correctly. You just have to know where to stay away from.
When I got the engine out, there was seriously 3/8" of caked on grease/mud in the indents on the side of the block. I had to use a screwdriver and my high flow air gun attachment just to get to most of the bolts I had to remove. It was actually so hard it looked like charcoal. I saved a piece for my wall of shame just to show people. Just so everybody knows, aluminum blocks dissipate heat very well but only when they are not covered in a heavy blanket of gunk. Those indents and the ridges on the block do more than give the block more structural integrity, they are also there to dissipate heat. When they're covered in gunk the heat has nowhere to go but stay in the engine.
On top of the caked gunk on the block, the radiator was almost completely clogged with dirt. I blew it out the front of the truck from inside the engine bay. Before I started you could not see through any part of the radiator. I really wish I would have taken a picture of what came out of it. My garage door was covered in dust.
It's really a shame that these trucks are being parted out so soon because of lazy people. There's no reason for 99 d1's and 01 d2's to go to the junkyard because people don't want to maintain their trucks. This doesn't mean washing the outside and changing your oil every 3000 miles.
Be smart if you wheel in in muddy and dusty places and clean it off when you get home. If you can get off before it dries that would be best. Just don't aim the power washer nozzle at the coils and the ecu's. I power wash my truck after every trip I take and have never had an overheating problem. If you give your truck some love it'll last a lot longer than you think.
The truck i'm working on right now is a d2 and I really figured it had a slipped liner. I bought a lesser mileage block just in case but when I got the engine out and pulled the heads I found it was just a blown head gasket. I blame this on two things.
I knew the truck before I bought it and it did have a head gasket job done already about 10k miles or so before I bought it. While I pulled the engine apart I noticed a bunch of things that lead me to believe that the guy was a hillbilly mechanic. A lot of bolts were very loose including an exhaust manifold bolt. Those usually don't walk their way out if they were torqued correctly in the first place. This leads me to believe that the heads weren't torqued down correctly also.
The second thing I blame this on is the amount of caked on grease/mud on the engine and in the radiator. I know everybody is so afraid to power wash or steam clean their engines because of horror stories about them dieing and not starting but it is possible to do this correctly. You just have to know where to stay away from.
When I got the engine out, there was seriously 3/8" of caked on grease/mud in the indents on the side of the block. I had to use a screwdriver and my high flow air gun attachment just to get to most of the bolts I had to remove. It was actually so hard it looked like charcoal. I saved a piece for my wall of shame just to show people. Just so everybody knows, aluminum blocks dissipate heat very well but only when they are not covered in a heavy blanket of gunk. Those indents and the ridges on the block do more than give the block more structural integrity, they are also there to dissipate heat. When they're covered in gunk the heat has nowhere to go but stay in the engine.
On top of the caked gunk on the block, the radiator was almost completely clogged with dirt. I blew it out the front of the truck from inside the engine bay. Before I started you could not see through any part of the radiator. I really wish I would have taken a picture of what came out of it. My garage door was covered in dust.
It's really a shame that these trucks are being parted out so soon because of lazy people. There's no reason for 99 d1's and 01 d2's to go to the junkyard because people don't want to maintain their trucks. This doesn't mean washing the outside and changing your oil every 3000 miles.
Be smart if you wheel in in muddy and dusty places and clean it off when you get home. If you can get off before it dries that would be best. Just don't aim the power washer nozzle at the coils and the ecu's. I power wash my truck after every trip I take and have never had an overheating problem. If you give your truck some love it'll last a lot longer than you think.
