Thread: Cracked TD5 Head

Woo Hooo,,,,,DOH! Well I found what I was expecting today after searching for elusive coolant loss over the past few months.

Pulled the inlet manifold off and found almost a shot glas of coolant in the #1 inlet runner and valve area! Fortunate to not hydraulic the motor.

A reco head from TRS with warranty is ready to go on, but I have a few questions for the brains trust.

Motor done 238000kms with a head machine 6 thou, 20 thousand kms ago, pressure tested ok at the time.

I have been following the thread on which serial numbers should/should not, be fitted with steel dowels, concerned that for some bizarre LR reason, this is the cause of my crack.
IMO there has been no real answer as to why?

1/ can anyone provide actual evidence of damage failure directly attributable to the use of steel dowels where plastic is recommended?

2/ I am well aware of what is recommended, however, since the dowel is only for location, the only reason for use or not, can be clearances/tolerances. Has anybody got these dimensions?

3/ Since the dowel is located closer to #2 inlet and # 1exhaust IMO the dowel would more likely cause a crack here than #1 inlet. The movement and subsequent force required to cause a crack in the casting involving the dowel would be huge. Despite castings having there own individual characteristics and stress points and IMO would likely have caused a fail around the fire ring also. General statement here I know, but anyone got a contradictory thought process? (stay on TD5 heads please)

4/ How can I identify which serial number range the new/reco unit came from? My D2 is a 2000 model and I know about the change of head fuel reg etc, but do the (steel dowel) recommended serial number ranges match the different head design or do they cross over between the 2?

Cheers

Thanks Woko and JC. I believed this to be true also, that dowel thread just got under my skin and had put a niggling thought there.

I wont be real happy if the reco. goes the same way, so am trusting it has been done right as I was told. What could possibly go wrong??

I looked at the Turner Eng. head from AMG and had a chat to TRS while I was in Adelaide a few weeks ago. Phil talked me out of the Turner job in favour of theirs. The TRS reco came with genuine valves etc, which apparently the AMG unit does not. The TRS reco was dearer but I do get piece of mind with TRS being close by (Yeah I know 1500kms is close here).

cheers.