chevync
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Castech Head Question
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clandr1
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I did a search for "castech" in thread titles and saw only 5 threads on the topic. For those of you who have the castech heads, what are you doing? Based on the other threads, this seems to be a fairly uncommon occurrence, even if you do have Castech heads.
For me, I'm just going to keep monitoring the fluid levels like I always have and will address the head if/when I begin losing coolant. I just don't know if it makes sense to open the valve cover and find out whether it is truly castech or not, because I'm not prepared to replace the heads on this truck until it starts to be an issue. After almost 9 years and 125,000 miles, I'm inclined to leave well enough alone.
For me, I'm just going to keep monitoring the fluid levels like I always have and will address the head if/when I begin losing coolant. I just don't know if it makes sense to open the valve cover and find out whether it is truly castech or not, because I'm not prepared to replace the heads on this truck until it starts to be an issue. After almost 9 years and 125,000 miles, I'm inclined to leave well enough alone.
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jyates1959
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I just replaced the heads in my 2004 Z71 Tahoe at 138,000 miles. When it went bad it went bad pretty suddenly. I was losing about a gallon and a half of coolant mixture every week and that was just driving around town less than 100 miles a week.
chevync
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I'm losing about one gallon every 150 miles, and still driving it, it doesn't overheat, skip or anything, if it weren't for the coolant leak you wouldn't know it was a bad head, till the engine builder finishes with my second new engine rebuild i'll keep driving it. lol
FrankU
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169K on my castech heads. No problem so far.
memphisrains423
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136k and this what I just found. 706 head. Rebuilt 862's on the way.
clandr1
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136k and this what I just found. 706 head. Rebuilt 862's on the way.
What symptoms did you have that made you remove the valve covers?
memphisrains423
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Loss of coolant was the first trigger. Then degraded oil performance after 1500 miles. Lifters knocking. Just wasn't normal with fresh oil and mileage. My oil level actually increased too. I'm sure the passenger side is cracked in 3 places
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chevync
Full Access Member
Both of mine were also cracked, I also went with the 862 heads, only put 100 miles on it so far, checked the oil and coolant level yesterday, so far so good.
---------- Post added at 05:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:46 AM ----------
btw the above post of me waiting on the engine builder didn't happen, the ******* got out of it and didn't rebuild another engine, but I did get a refund for the build, took it to a well known mechanic and he pulled the heads and they were a mess, also found out he rebuilt the lower half but never touched the top end, i ended up replacing lifers, push rods and rocker arms, engine now purrs!
---------- Post added at 05:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:50 AM ----------
This is a pic when we pulled my cover..
clandr1
Full Access Member
Thanks for the response. I have a sample kit on the way from Blackstone Labs. They should be able to tell me if even the smallest bit of coolant is mixing with my oil. I haven't noticed any loss of coolant, but I want to make sure I get ahead of this thing if/when it happens to me.
