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Old 06-22-2018, 02:24 PM
oldskewel oldskewel is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sgrice View Post
Do a google search for YouTube 50skid m54 rebuild. There are about 30 videos in a series covering head gasket repair on the M54 engine. He discusses compression testing, what toold to buy, what the cost was, etc. I’m not an expert, but it sure seemed to me that he covered it well.

Looks like about 10 hours or more of videos, so go ahead and get started watching!

Good luck - let us know how it turns out. As Andrewwynn pointed out, it’s possible thr head gasket went first, then high pressure popped a weak spot in the hose. I don’t know how one can tell if the chicken or the egg came first. From a practical standpoint it doesn’t matter - at this point the repair is
Thanks, I'll look that up on the google. 10 hours of videos - wow, I don't know if that is good or bad. I'll definitely take a look.

Thanks for pointing out andrewwynn's comment on maybe the head gasket failure was the first thing to go. I completely missed that on the first reading. Yes, that would give some reassurance, maybe, that I'll find a limited disaster in there when opening it up.

More specifically on the failure point on the upper radiator hose ... it was on the plastic fitting that goes into the radiator. There was a bunch of crusty stuff inside that fitting that would scrape off with a screwdriver. The back end of that hose had no problem, and the lower radiator hose appeared almost like new (and I think it was - one problem with incomplete service records). The plastic fitting makes a bend right past the little opening that connects to the expansion tank, and the hole was there, in a little indentation. Almost like it was designed as a weak point so it would fail there and be easy to spot. I think the crusty residue could have provided some protection for a while, and then at some point it just blew through. So yes, the HG causing the radiator hose to blow could be true. Interesting.
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