Need head gasket advice

[silver89]

Just had new injectors put in my truck at 184000
I also was loosing coolant at the time but could not see where
The mechanic who did the injectors was pretty sure it was an injector cup leaking

We thought everything was good but on my way home from tx to mt losing coolant again now I'm almost certain its head gaskets

Before we did injectors we initially thought head gasket

Mechanic said I had three options

1 replace head gasket and have old heads surfaced he said this was not a guaranteed fix price I think he said $3500

2 replace head gasket and use new heads price $7500

3 get a remanufactured block from dealer with 100000 mile warranty price $10500 installed

On a 2001 Dmax none of these sound too appealing
I do love the truck and I think it is otherwise in very good shape

Should I go with option 1 and do it now. I do not know how long head gaskets have been leaking maybe 20000 miles i lose about a 1/4 gallon of coolant every 300 miles towing a travel trailer. The coolant blows out the resivoir.

Could I just keep driving the truck and get a new block when gaskets really start leaking badly.

Any help would be appreciated

[DmaxMaverick]

[*snip]

Could I just keep driving the truck and get a new block when gaskets really start leaking badly.

Any help would be appreciated

If it is head gaskets, you're already there. Been there for a while, it seems. ASAP is your only option, or you'll be at option 3 sooner than you think.

Confirm that it is head gaskets, one way or another. It's likely, though.

[CoyleJR]

Silver89,

My 2006 D/A used small amounts of coolant for about 50k miles. Jim came to the rescue when he wrote a DP service article on radiator caps. I checked my radiator cap and the spring was frozen and would not move. I took the blunt end of a screw driver and hit the inside of the cap to free up the spring and it solved the coolant issue. I quickly replaced the cap with a new GM cap and it hasn't used any coolant for the last 75k miles. A new cap is only about $15.00 and would be an easy fix if you are lucky.

Good luck
John

[Kennedy]

Sure sounds like a classic head gasket issue. Easily fixed, but expensive. Studs and skim cut heads at a minimum. We also avoid the latest GM gaskets due to design and quality concerns. We do offer head gasket kits w/o all the frills and junk that you do not need.