Allright: heads done at a specialty shop back in may. I noticed wetness in June but the mechanic said it wouldn’t be possible so i thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. It’s extremely minor. He didn’t look under the truck at that point. It wasn’t much so I check it every once in a while. It’s bad enough to see a few weeks ago. I wiped it clean and now can see what is in the photo below after only a month.

heads were surfaced at the best machine shop in town (nashville) and he used stretch bolts to reinstall. As far as I know, he uses Elring gaskets.

wetness can be seen at the back of the block. It is sort of migrating forward a bit so it doesn’t show much directly underneath the coolant passage. He refilled with dexcool despite asking him to do green coolant. I was going to flush and refill at the one year mark, so I wasn’t too concerned.

i saw the fresh heads myself and saw the block torn apart in the bay so I know it was all done. He’s done hundreds of heads on D2s before.

what does the hive mind think could cause it to leak again? No misfires or codes, coolant level is basically the same and no more than 1/4” noticeable in my coolant reservoir is gone, but to me, any coolant leak is a bad leak.

what say y’all? What would cause it to leak after only 4k miles? Mostly highway miles and around town. Warped deck? Gasket just failed that fast?

He should warranty it and I am going to talk to him this week, but I wanted to get the collective involved before I went in. If he won’t warranty it, I’ll be doing it myself, which I’m not concerned about, but It is an inconvenient time of year to do it.

here’s a photo. This is the rear driver side around towards cylinder 5 and 7 and the coolant passage.

EDIT:

the only other thing I can really think is that they forgot to do the proper torque/90 degree x2 final torque required with these bolts.

 

If you took it back back in June...and he didn't even look at it...l'd be right back there now...expecting a repair to be made.

 

Yes i agree. Although I wasn’t there for him to look at it that day, but to buy new cats (he ordered them for me at shop cost) and mentioned it while there. I’ll will absolutely remind him I mentioned it at the time in June.

I’ve checked the reservoir religiously every week and have constant temp monitoring. Temps have not exceeded 210 (that was the drive through at 12pm 97f ambient with a long line.

average temps are 177-188. 195 peak summer since.

I’ll definitley be going by tomorrow or early this week.

 

Put a wrench on those external head bolts, see if they are tight. If they are properly torqued it would take at least 90 ft lbs to budge them, if they move with less they were either not properly torqued or the threads in the block are damaged.

 

He's going to warranty it. I'll take it back tomorrow to get it on the lift. If the head has to come off, they'll do it, but he's gonna make sure it's not coming from around the back of the block somewhere and just hitting that seam and finding the low spot to pool up. They'll do a pressure test and a few other tests to determine the leak location first. Good dude.

 

that is good to hear - as best practice - IMO they should have done a compression test after it was put back together and a leak down when the heads were off - smoke test

 

noted. I'll be sure to ask. Thanks all. fingers crossed the block is fine.