Hi.

I am having something similar, but no garage involved.

K74 Diesel 4WD, head gasket problem getting exhaust gas into the coolant so I replaced the head with a new cylinder head from Milners along with new bolts and gasket. Did all the belts, pump, remove EGR at the same time. I know I did the bolts correctly in 3 phases as per the instructions. I have done head gaskets (and everything else for that matter) on cars before.
I guess the gasket was done previously but must have been quite a while ago judging by the amount of crud built up everywhere. The water pipe to the turbo was actually completely full of crud, surprised the turbo hadn't gone pop. The gasket I took off appeared to be exactly the same as the one supplied by Milners.
Started it up this afternoon and now I have water seeping out of the head gasket just below number 2 fuel injector so really confused by this. It was not doing this with the old head and gasket. What I did NOT do was check the straightness of the block. All looked fine and to be honest I just forgot to get a ruler on it. It all looked OK and it was clean and dry.
So now I need to take it all apart again, the suspicion being that the water must be leaking from the waterway between number 1 and 2 somehow. Would like to hear any experiences with gasket sealer like mentioned in this thread. The intention would be to only apply it in the affected area below number 2 fuel injector. I have K&W Copper Coat which I have used on all copper head gasket for american V8, but not sure about using it on a composite or Multi Layer Steel gasket.
Thanks for any input both on gasket sealer and best gasket to use.

Just reading this thread from the beginning. When I first changed my head gasket when it was the 2.8 it had ceramic inserts. They are the little round combustion chamber pieces just before the fuel enters the pistons. They are a real thing. Most heads now and certainly new or recon ones have the metal inserts. You can skim the heads with the ceramic inserts but most places won’t because it kills the milling heads. My first head was cracked so I got another that had metal inserts in it. Just some general knowledge for people.

These little circle pieces can sometimes be ceramic Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

the 2.5 oem heads are alloy swirl pots thats funny that the 2.8 are ceramic, I would think the ceramic would be more tolerant to the high heat created in this area the alloy ones always crack not that it poses a problem

The ceramic ones where cracked on the first head I took off.

ah so they all crack then!

Replaced my cylinder head about 2 years ago and thought I'd retorque my cylinder head bolts, should have done it before but never got round to it. Found 3 that "cracked " at 160Nm, all the rest the torque wrench still broke at 160Nm. I then was able to retorque the 3 by turning about another full turn. Went round the sequence again and torque wrench broke at 160Nm at every bolt. (Calibrated torque wrench) My initial thoughts was operator error, but I don't think I was that sloppy, The bolts were all near the first cylinder, so the easiest to get to. Next thought is Differential Thermal expansion, the bolts are expanding at higher temperatures but not contracting at the same rate as the cylider head. Anyone else think this could affect the cylinder head and result in gasket failures.

K74? Thought they were only supposed to be torqued down to 130nm....

Took 160 from a previous thread. Someone had torqued using an angle method and found that this equated to 160Nm. I'm hoping haven't overstretched, but I did measure the old studs and compared to new.