diff --git a/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md b/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md
index 6b7677b52..ac4b16284 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ Special thanks to external contributors on this release:
 ### FEATURES:
 
 ### IMPROVEMENTS:
+- [tools] add go-deadlock tool to help detect deadlocks
 
 ### BUG FIXES:
 - [node] \#3186 EventBus and indexerService should be started before first block (for replay last block on handshake) execution
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 1250fccb9..853a01c94 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -226,6 +226,19 @@ test_race:
 	@echo "--> Running go test --race"
 	@GOCACHE=off go test -p 1 -v -race $(PACKAGES)
 
+# uses https://github.com/sasha-s/go-deadlock/ to detect potential deadlocks
+test_with_deadlock:
+	find . -name "*.go" | grep -v "vendor/" | xargs -n 1 sed -i.bak 's/sync.RWMutex/deadlock.RWMutex/'
+	find . -name "*.go" | grep -v "vendor/" | xargs -n 1 sed -i.bak 's/sync.Mutex/deadlock.Mutex/'
+	find . -name "*.go" | grep -v "vendor/" | xargs -n 1 goimports -w
+	make test
+	make cleanup_after_test_with_deadlock
+
+# cleanes up after you ran test_with_deadlock
+cleanup_after_test_with_deadlock:
+	find . -name "*.go" | grep -v "vendor/" | xargs -n 1 sed -i.bak 's/deadlock.RWMutex/sync.RWMutex/'
+	find . -name "*.go" | grep -v "vendor/" | xargs -n 1 sed -i.bak 's/deadlock.Mutex/sync.Mutex/'
+	find . -name "*.go" | grep -v "vendor/" | xargs -n 1 goimports -w
 
 ########################################
 ### Formatting, linting, and vetting
@@ -330,4 +343,4 @@ build-slate:
 # To avoid unintended conflicts with file names, always add to .PHONY
 # unless there is a reason not to.
 # https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Phony-Targets.html
-.PHONY: check build build_race build_abci dist install install_abci check_dep check_tools get_tools get_dev_tools update_tools get_vendor_deps draw_deps get_protoc protoc_abci protoc_libs gen_certs clean_certs grpc_dbserver test_cover test_apps test_persistence test_p2p test test_race test_integrations test_release test100 vagrant_test fmt rpc-docs build-linux localnet-start localnet-stop build-docker build-docker-localnode sentry-start sentry-config sentry-stop build-slate protoc_grpc protoc_all build_c install_c
+.PHONY: check build build_race build_abci dist install install_abci check_dep check_tools get_tools get_dev_tools update_tools get_vendor_deps draw_deps get_protoc protoc_abci protoc_libs gen_certs clean_certs grpc_dbserver test_cover test_apps test_persistence test_p2p test test_race test_integrations test_release test100 vagrant_test fmt rpc-docs build-linux localnet-start localnet-stop build-docker build-docker-localnode sentry-start sentry-config sentry-stop build-slate protoc_grpc protoc_all build_c install_c test_with_deadlock cleanup_after_test_with_deadlock
diff --git a/scripts/get_tools.sh b/scripts/get_tools.sh
index 955ec943a..47077c104 100755
--- a/scripts/get_tools.sh
+++ b/scripts/get_tools.sh
@@ -51,3 +51,8 @@ installFromGithub golang/dep 22125cfaa6ddc71e145b1535d4b7ee9744fefff2 cmd/dep
 installFromGithub alecthomas/gometalinter 17a7ffa42374937bfecabfb8d2efbd4db0c26741
 installFromGithub gogo/protobuf 61dbc136cf5d2f08d68a011382652244990a53a9 protoc-gen-gogo
 installFromGithub square/certstrap e27060a3643e814151e65b9807b6b06d169580a7
+
+## make test_with_deadlock
+installFromGithub petermattis/goid b0b1615b78e5ee59739545bb38426383b2cda4c9
+installFromGithub sasha-s/go-deadlock d68e2bc52ae3291765881b9056f2c1527f245f1e
+go get golang.org/x/tools/cmd/goimports