How To Install Head Gaskets And Head Studs | Duramax 

These men just showed every budget minded person how to do a $1,500-$3,000 job. Legends.

I don't comment on videos but definitely wanted to shout out to you on being able to film this process. Unbelievable video contributing to the Duramax community. Good Job

The level of professionalism from this shop is astounding. You guys work on these trucks as if they are your own. Much attention is paid to details and the teamwork shows just how much these guys probably love what they do and how much they love working here.

I watched this video a good 30 times while working on mine. This video was a life saver for sure!

Lots of great info. Defiantly changed my mind from "DIY this job" to "just take it to a professional".

This video just saved me $8400 from letting the local shop do it so really i saved 4000 i bought new heads, new headgasket kit, up pipes, down pipe and new exhaust manifolds, new upper and lower radiator hose, fuel return lines, coolant lines, new fuel return from the injectors, and got some new tools thanks keep what your doing !

I am a cummins guy, but enjoy your videos on the duramax trucks. I like the fact that they protect the front end and paint. That is a good mechanic who takes pride in what he does. if i was to ever buy a duramax i would make the long drive from upstate NY just for them to work on it.

Thanks fellas. All the what to look for when doing lines makes all the difference in mechanic videos. Y'all are awesome.

I've never done head gaskets and arp head studs on a diesel before, just want to give a big shout out to Ryan for walking me through every step needed to complete this huge project, extremely helpful and would definitely recommend this video! Great job guys thank you very much!

Excellent production! Thanks to the technicians for being patient and thorough in describing the process and thanks for all the detailed description of the components and common pitfalls.

Awesome video. Its was extremely helpful for me doing my valves after putting head studs in. The only thing I would recommend is to actually loosen each rocker before torqueing down the main assembly. If they were tight like several of his were while being torqued, then you loosen them to get the feeler gauge in, you wouldn't have 30 ft lbs. anymore.

Of all the different automotive repair videos I've watched, and there's been hundreds. I have to say that this was the most well explained video I have ever seen. Great job guy's.

I know this is late but thank you for giving us a professional step by step video on this. I have learned quite a bit.

This video helps me out when im working on my buddy's duramax. And you made a good content to man.

Wow, thats a lot of details, tips, and tricks! I can't imagine what a nightmare this would be to do if you didn't have this video to refer to. Nice job guys.

Love it very cool that Ryan let you do this with him, thank you very much

Wow. Impressively thorough. I’m sure I will be referring to this if I attempt to do head gaskets and studs on my own. Much appreciated 👍

I have a duramax that someone tried to do a share head gasket job and lost the dowel on the driver side. It will allow the head to slide downhill a few thousands so when reassembled it will starve the oil passageway and lock up the push rod between the gasket and the head casting. Also had a crap @$$ shop try and repair it and use the same handed gasket on both sides. Grrrrrr! Love the quality work being done in this video!

How in the world did GM design, engineer what your taking apart and will be putting back together??? What a CLUSTER! I don’t know how you even open the hood and look at what’s before your eyes without getting totally disturb and quit!!! I don’t know how you do this day in and day out. You people are special!!! Keep on TRUCKING!!!

Unfortunately having my head gaskets replaced but what a great video now I know why it’s close to $6000. Thank you !

Ok your other video did suck but seeing this one tells me how good you can be. Much respect Subscribed

Just finished getting my heads out. Off to the machine shop tomorrow. Snapped 2 GPs. I used this video all the way through tear down. This is by far the best head gasket install video I have seen. Thanks.

Awesome video bud!! I’m about to do this on an lly dually I picked up from a buddy of mine. It was good to watch this to give me an idea what I will be getting into. I really appreciate your informative videos keep up the good work!

Awesome video my head gasket went out on my 2016 gmc Dinali Duramax with only 43,000 miles on it to get to the dealership I still had a warranty appreciate the video thanks

What an awesome video man!! You can tell those guys been working together for awhile. Hopefully I’ll never have to do this on my LB7. Happy new year brother! 🤝

This is great, showing your own shortcuts/helper points the way i use too.

Love the details you went through the whole process.

Hands down the best video on this I’ve seen!! Thanks!

Great job on the video, I definitely used it as a reference on some of the tips and tricks! Thanks for the video keep putting them out

Great, informative video Truck Master, Ryan and Logan! Thank you for taking the time and documenting it step by step, I can't thank you enough. I don't know what some of the comments were talking about background noise?? I could hear you clearly and was so engrossed with the details that I didn't pay attention to any background noise. Happy New Year!

Great video. Ive become a fan of your channel. Super helpful. After getting kind of shafted by a shop all work by me from now on. Eventually need to do head gaskets n studs and might as well do everything in your other videos getting to it. This is definitely a huge job.

i was fortunate enough to have this video to guide me as i just did studs and HG in my LLY, what a great knowledge packed step by step video, thanks guys

Thank you for your video, this has help.me do my headgasket by my self in 3 days had a fuel issue for 1 day an it was my fuel housing needing rebuilt. Never have I done anything like this to a vehicle other than turbos on a bmw 135i. This was a extreme help! First diesel headgasket job done perfect!

Phenomenal video! Thanks for making this film. These guys are legit!

I have hope! Phenomenal video!!! Perfectly displayed, explained, no wasted time, and nothing missed. Wow THANK YOU!!! do you have a video or recommendations on egr delete while in there? Any other things a guy should consider replacing while in there? Men like you, make it possible for guys like me to even try to begin a job like this! Again thank you. God bless.

Man I’ve been watching this for a month now helping with my head gasket replacement! Thanks for the great video!

Big job guys................thank you for your style, awesome tutorial

I loved this video with a lot of information and how to do but most important at the end they show u the truck running 💯💯💪🏾💪🏾

Great detail on the steps.....very helpful. I have a 2004.5 Duramax with the LLY engine.

Video saved me $8k Way easier than it looks. These engines look intimidating until you get them tore down.

The Milwaukee power ratchet is such a time saver!

thank you so much!! this is my 1st lbz and 1st time working on a diesel and Im coasting along just fine watching this video. 😁

For those egr cooler bolts on the exhaust (by the firewall), use a flex head type ratchet.

Just wanted to say thank you for such a great video. I just did this job on my 05 and this video was great help !!

You’re right about the rocker cover I used to get in a fight with the lead mechanic who trained me about this very step he wanted me to use a ratchet and I swore by the impact that you never believe me how even the three eights air impact did a great job you just have to hammer them in all the way and do it in one shot not too hard not to fast

What a great team you have! 👍👍😎. Extra nice work men!

Man this video is a life saver thanks guys saved me a lot of money!

I have a 34 year aerospace career as an assembler and machinist and have worked on some of the most complex jet engines in existence and after watching this I have come to realise they ain't got NOTHING on a Duramax engine for the layers of crap you have to remove just to replace something as simple as head gaskets. Looks like you guys have it down to a science. How much does replacing the head gaskets cost? Great job by the way..........

Just watched this video , I luv my 12v Cummins even more 🤣

I remember when i did this to my lbz. It's not even a shitty job, its just time consuming

Awesome video guys, keep it up. Can't wait for more videos. 👌🤙

These guys are good. Very nice that they allow you to do this. Curious as to what all this would cost....

for anyone doing this job, I'd recommend using the 3M bristle brush for cleaning the block. it doesnt make a mess, it's great for getting the soot off the block from where the blow was and it makes the job much faster. also blow out the stud holes with air and shop vac everything out, otherwise you'll be pulling the heads off again go blow them out. Do yourself a favor and just leave the exhaust manifold on. The 3 bolts connected to the manifold, one is in a very tight spot that is impossible to get a socket on. I bent wrenches trying to get it off, so just leave the manifold on. Also it wasnt discussed in the video but I changed my oil before I started it up. given that the oil was contaminated with coolant I didnt wanna risk any further damage to my engine.

Awesome production quality! Every time I see a teardown I remember why I hate how overly complex they made this truck haha. But a great vid

These guys are super sharp! Very impressive. 👍👍

I appreciate this video. I’ve been working away at doing headgaskets on my truck and using this as a reference

Huge thank you! After watching this video several times since you made it I finally finished heads and arp studs as well as new cp3 and water pump. It took me two weekends but the ol lb7 with 315000 miles is running like a top keep em coming!

Good video. Only things I thought you left out is what to replace while you're there. Rebuild turbo, new water pump, new oil cooler gaskets, go through wire harness and replace protective sheath. I also replaced my reservoir tank. While the heads were out for machining I had all the intake and valve covers powder coated semi gloss black. Added mishimoto up and down pipes, PPE exhaust manifolds and a dual fueler. Hard to believe some guys skip the valve lash. You don't belong wrenching on a duramax engine if you cant do valve lash. My early 06 LBZ had the rivet head gaskets and just started to show signs so I did HG's and studs preventively. Cheers.

Great video extremely helpful! I do wish it showed a little bit more on the driver side cause that’s the tricky side but over all very helpful saved me a lot of time on this job

i use the line wrenches for all sorts of stuff they are so nice if your trying to not round stuff off haha but they work great for brake-lines and fuel-lines etc like you did in the video they are just a great invention rather than the regular open end wrench that usually spreads open and slips and rounds stuff off haha been there to many times lol haha great video as usual

This is a helpful video for sure. BUT if your thinking about doing this job yourself watch this video in it's entirety. They show mostly the passenger side, that's because the drivers side is a total PITA. That being said. In my opinion they leave out a lot of VERY crucial details on putting it back together especially towards the end. (Anyone can rip something apart) Example put your injectors in before your top fuel lines 55.55 in the video. On the drivers side after injectors are in install HP fuel lines from main fuel rail to injectors START WITH # 7 #5 then main fuel line next #3 #1 if not you will be taking off everything they told you to put on to tighten the fuel lines from #7-#1. Again I'm not bashing the video It helped me a lot just could of been better detailed going back together. Just trying to help someone out wanting to take the job on their self

I have heard some people torquing the ARP Head Studs down to 130-140 lb-ft instead of 125, especially in applications with higher than stock boost levels.

Nice. So glad I only have to deal with an aluminum LS1 head(s). Those heads look frickin heavy.

Everything seams straight forward, I only have one question, my water pump instructions mention something about purging my cooling system, do I need to do this? If so could you please show me how? You’re show is awesome , very easy to follow, you’ve helped several times already, thanks for everything.

Awesome content!! Thanks for putting this together.

This video is the reason why i just subscribed to the channel and why i will shop for stuff here as well.

THE BEST, LITERALLY AMAZING

I did this by myself in my garage back in 2013 on my LLY. I would rate this job as “intermediate”. It shouldn’t be too bad for someone who has some experience working on cars but I wouldn’t recommend for a novice or beginner. This video is fantastic. Only thing I would add: -have plenty of spare fuel and coolant line and replace all of those small rubber hoses. Mine were dry rotted. -I would get new glow plugs. Several of mine broke off in the head and the machine shop had to remove them. -get new fuel return lines. A few of mine broke off in the injector. -use care with all of the harnesses, they break easy -take the time to clean everything before you reassemble, esp if you don’t have deletes -at the end, I filled the coolant with water, and idled for about an hour to check for leaks. Then changed the coolant and oil.

Thank you for this video doing my first set of head gaskets on my lb7 tomorrow morning

Man been waitin for this if it was 2mnths sooner it would have saved me 6k

I did that to my Lb7 back in 2017 its very time consuming never worked on diesel before just gas engines, it all started with filling up at diesel station that contained free water in their underground tank. It busted three injectors plus one of the seals on the high pressure pump which led to diesel leaking into the oil system. I had to tear it all the way down due to Lb7 injectors are inside the valve cover. Once there I had the cylinder heads rebuilt. All brand new MA injectors, new water pump from MA , also a fuel air separation system from air dog and got rid of that OEM useless water catcher and filter. he he. still going strong 165k miles on it. I wish this video would've been out then it would've taken me a lot less time to complete the job. Instead of a month and a half I probable would have done it in a week.

Id put a mishimoto going back in no doubt one of the best cooling upgrades

You just made my job so much easier. Thanks

Excellent video guys!! Thank you for putting that together 👏

Hey @tuckmaster! I owe you and Ryan and Logan genuine how do you do and thank you! I've had a true improvement in my life after i went ahead and dove right into this - i can't say I'd recommend attempting it, if anyone's wondering, and i figured this: I did my LLY head gaskets about 4,000km ago, in March, 2020, and if work calls, and says stay home, and basically the whole world shuts down and you can't leave your house for over a month, then i recommend you do your head gaskets, and then use this video if you own a LLY, its perfect, its beautiful, its money, its going to be hard, but in the end its a now-you-can-do-anything-you-put-your-mind-to kind-of-a-feeling, that I must thank you for instilling in me with these instructions, and I felt it enough to share with you all, that, together we will get us all to a truly better place and improvement in life, whatever you want to learn and rebuild or create, watch the ones that know what they're doing that are doing what you want to do, stop and listen, help if you're asked, and get yourself a to-do list down on paper, and when folks take the time to share, feeling gratitude and wonder in your heart is the way to be, and be sure to make a start on whatever it is first thing as possible in your day. My truck will always have that story built in there for extra horse-torque-power when i need it also, so I'm stoked, and I'll be thanking you guys! Thank you all. Could not have done it without you guys at that time. Thank you for your generous spirits and super skilled and steady ways. Thank you for sharing. God Bless!

Always enjoy watching yoyr vids. 👍👍

great job guys,and great editing ,I bet the intake runners were nasty,I deleted mine,about to install hsp y bridge,n pipes, glad you showed valve adjust,did you do new valve guides?,also I would clean the turbo,and remove the heater core quik connects as they break and leave you stranded THANKS

Great job guys, top tech's.

Thanks for this! Very helpful!

followed this video doing headgaskets on my 04, now I'm doing another 05 lly. Thanks again for your help.

Thank you so much for the indepth video. Not sure if you saved me $3k or made me feel the shop labor is well worth the cash. Lol.. maybe sending you guys my LLY soon.

Great video! Very informative.

Great video!! Mine will need them one day.

That was a Great and Informative Video. I own a 2005 Chevy Duramax. And I was just wondering what that job involves. Great information on this. I know if or when my turn comes the bolts wont come off as easy as those ones did in the video..LOL. But thats my LUCK...LOL Again Sir Thank You for the info. Great Video.

Doing my LLY right now. This video made me very comfortable doing it myself

if your wondering why your getting comments from me on older videos its cause im binge watching all your videos for like the third time haha its been a minute so im refreshing myself haha

Awesome video really went into details made it look too easy

Great video man!

This video has been very helpful! Got a question...for that hose y'all cut, where do you find replacement hoses? Or can you just use regular heater hose? Thanks.

upgrades are always great

lots of info, thank you.

This is fun to watch at like 10x speed with the Benny Hill theme on

If your intentions are to drain the system then do that before you pull a cap off a pressurized res. Ounce you no longer have pressure pushing coolant out the drain then pull that cap so it will flow

Bruh i have an lly, sweet! Thank you truck master, ryan, and the other Technician!

Super Informative! Thanks a ton.

Great video : This engines use too be the greatest nothing Biglin to be repair . After those EGR valves and cooler many things go wrong . Great info and some hints for the biguiners . Stinky job .

Head gaskets 101. Fill all openings and cylinders with shaving cream. Scrape with gasket scraper. Get the largest knife honing stone you can find. Bass pro had an 8” x 3”. Start with course side using wd40 going lengthwise. Finish with fine side. Don’t go crazy. Vacuum up and turn motor over wiping cylinders. Oil cylinders and turn over. NO SANDPAPER EVER!!!

Well happy Tuesday to me! Seeing this video made me realize I need heads done on my LML. UGH! Spewing coolant out the reservoir, constantly low coolant and rock hard pipe 😭😭😭😭😭

Did they clean the head bolt holes? Didn't see that in the block prep part of the video but assuming they did it. Wondering if they used a brush or a thread chaser. Thanks for this amazing guide video!

watched this as i contemplate a new truck, i think my ole girl finally gave in after 15yrs together the LLY has the tell tell signs... however it did this 6yrs ago and i just bought a rad cap and bled the system... may try that again, i wonder if truck master would be interested in doing my heads