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by **Begle1** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:01 pm

My eBay second gen head was, according to the machine shop guy, "cracked in a million places".

All the valve seats had cracks, and then 5 out of 6 cylinders had cracks between a valve and the injector hole.

Which is ironic considering that I got a second gen head in the first place to avoid the cracking between the valves and injectors... :roll:

What are the options for repair? I know they have those metal-stitch guys, but he was talking about some kind of giant oven and welding the cracks?

by **greasemonkey** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:46 pm

for what it's going to cost to pay someone to weld up cracks I think you'd probably be better off finding another head. Let me check with my local diesel shop to see if he has a good head, he's got all kinds of stuff sitting around.

by **Begle1** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:56 pm

Sure. That'd be helpful. Thanks.

What's the downside to running a cracked head, anyways? You loose a little bit of compression out the injector port?

by **burnt_servo** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 1:51 pm

wouldn't it be easier to get a brand new bare head than spending close to the same amount of money repairing the cracked one ?

then hopefully your used valves / springs / ect... are still good , and move them over to the new casting ?

by **PToombs** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 2:51 pm

Sometimes the cracks between the injectors go into the water jacket. Ask Greg (G1625S) on DTR. He found out the hard way. He bought a new head for $500. I thought that was reasonable.

by **greasemonkey** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:39 pm

PToombs wrote:He bought a new head for $500. I thought that was reasonable.

500 for a new, bare head?? that seems pretty cheap, not saying you're wrong-I have no idea; but if you can find a new bare head for that price, it's not worth messing with a used one, just swap your parts and be done with it.

by **Begle1** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:48 pm

New Genuine Cummins heads go on eBay can go over $1000.

New "Tri-State Cylinder" heads or "DCP" heads go on eBay in the $400-600 area. I've heard some questionable stories about the "counterfeits".

I've never seen a bare head for sale at all.

by **Philip** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:52 pm

Begle did you get that rusted up used one that was on there a couple of weeks ago?

by **Begle1** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:54 pm

I got a greasy non-rusty one that was on a couple months ago.

I figured it was worth the risk for $150, especially since they fixed the cracking problems when they went to the 7mm injector bores... :cry:

by **KTA** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:57 pm

Every 12Valve head on any engine I have got but one has cracks through the injector bores. I just run em I havent had one leak yet, but when one does I will just get a DHP head and put on, they are cheap and are a lot better than the china knockoffs. If you just have small seat cracks inserts should get you fixed up for less money though.

by **Begle1** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 8:22 pm

All the valve seats had 2 or 3 cracks, and then each injector port had one.

And just hairline cracks. I would've never seen them had the engine guy not had them outlined.

I'll need to get a picture.

If you tell me that it's normal, I'd not think twice about running it.

by **PToombs** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 3:03 pm

The head Greg got wasn't bare, it came with valves for that price. I can check and see where he got it from. I can't remember.

by **bgilbert** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 3:33 pm

PToombs wrote:The head Greg got wasn't bare, it came with valves for that price. I can check and see where he got it from. I can't remember.

He got it from Alabama Cylinder Head -ACH. I have one from Tri-State Cyl Head.

by **GPSMatt** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:44 pm

KTA wrote:Every 12Valve head on any engine I have got but one has cracks through the injector bores. I just run em I havent had one leak yet, but when one does I will just get a DHP head and put on, they are cheap and are a lot better than the china knockoffs. If you just have small seat cracks inserts should get you fixed up for less money though.

DHP?

and bgilbert how was the tristate cylinder head been looking at those.

by **bgilbert** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:56 pm

GPSMatt wrote:
DHP?

and bgilbert how was the tristate cylinder head been looking at those.

DHP was on ebay, I didn't know who they were either when I first read that, but after looking on ebay I see they sell.

The tristate head has worked just fine. My only complaint was the crate it arrived in was all beat to hell. Could have been UPS, not the shipper. But the head was undamaged. So far so good. Oh and when I bought it, they ran about $800, then shortly after I seen them on sale for half that.

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