I finally got around to tearing down the motor in my dually due to the fact I was mixing oil into my cooling system. I decided since somebody else drove the truck for the first 190,000 miles that I'd go ahead and go through the motor. The head gasket was definitely blown, had 5 injectors that matched, one that didn't. The hose to the wastegate was capped off. The fuel plate is MIA in the injection pump unless the one I have is a 0 plate? It's a square plate w/ two bolt holes in it. Now, the motor only has 190k and there is no crosshatch marks left in the cylinders and the piston rings can be seen in the cylinders w/ pistons installed. I can see the ring gap is probably .050. I'm goint to buy a in frame kit that comes w/ Mahle pistons and all fel pro gaskets. I got the motor torn down to the bare short block and will flip in the morning to pull the crank,cam, and slugs out. Need to measure my cylinders to see if it'll make it on stock bore. I'm hoping it's just the pistons are worn down from all the fuel and boost. I'll be going back to stock for the most part since it'll be used for towing after this. Anybody had any luck w/ Mahle pistons? I hear they're good pistons in the gas motor world but I didn't know they did Cummins.

 

I don't know about the pistons, but I'de like to hear what the bottom end looks like when you flip it. Check the mains and rod bearings w/ a feeler guage and let us know how worn they are before you break them loose. Everyone woud like too see the long term damage of "over doing it."

 

That's also something I forgot to mention along w/ the shadetree mods this thing had done to it. The bottom end sounded like it was knocking even though the oil pressure was ok. I had a 96 diesel before this one that was owned since new and sold it w/ 610k. I went to a powerlessstroke after that because my friend needed out of the note and it sucked! I went years w/o a diesel after that and decided I wanted another one. I'm a mechanic for a living and really like the diehard 12valve motors. This truck was purchased off of ebay as bad motor and got it cheap enough to make it worth my while to build it. I've seen alot of these diesels w/ the mods done wrong and coming in with the motors torn up. I think mine was messed up the most from high egt's and the overheating. The radiator was completely plugged! I filled up the tank on one side and tilted the radiator and nothing flowed to the other side. I'm hoping to get this done before Christmas since I've owned it for 6 months now and am just now starting on it. Seems mechanics fix their stuff last at times.

 

sounds like that truck has alot more miles than is showing on the speedo. i pulled my head off at 268k and it has had the pyro pegged to many times to count. and it still had a nice cross hatch on the cylinder walls. i block the waste gate on many truck that i bump up. with just a plate chage the blocked waste gate seems to work great.

 

Ok, got the bottom end apart this morning. Wow! Alot of damage. Everything looked ok when it was just the short block. #3 and #6 had severely damaged skirts on the pistons. #5 piston had actually worn the cylinder alittle sideways. The rod bearings were gone. They had worn past the silver layer into the copper and it was pitting real bad. It was just starting to score the crank journals. The mains were perfect. The machine shop said that the pistons were torn up from washout. Meaning I was dumping so much fuel that there was no oil left on the cylinder walls to lubricate the pistons. They also said the bearings were worn out from the excessive boost of the turbo. I don't know. My mechanic experience tells me the pistons were torn up from overheating... Hmmh. Oh well, at least the main components are ok and the engine is rebuildable. Looks like w/ machine work, rebuild kit w/ new pistons, and the all the extra parts I'm throwing in it's going to be about $1500. I'm still happy this way considering a used motor is ??$2500? And don't know anything about the previous owners maintenance. Will keep you all updated...
Oh, and one more thing. Everybody here mentions to watch out for the killer dowel pin, well, Mine had afew of the gear housing bolts coming loose. One in particular was already one turn out. How about them killer bolts, eh?

 

If the ramp was missing from the bottom of that fuel plate Id say you were putting in a lot of fuel. with a stock turbo I think it would be running very rich. very likely the piston damage was washout and hot spots on the skirt where you werent getting a good oil film. Is there still cross-hatch on the cylinders that had the bad skirts?
Have you checked the piston coolers? I heard some of the nozzles were plastic and melted with high temps. (?)

 

The #1 cylinder was missing a oil nozzle but the piston was perfect,as far as the skirt was concerned. From the rings up on the pistons(all)it looked like 36grit sandpaper had been used on them. Even the rings were scored up. I think I'll go buy a new camera this weekend so I can get some pictures loaded. I know everyone likes to see carnage except theirs!By the way there was no crosshatching left to be seen except on #1 and it was very faint.

 

vette95 - pictures would be good of this one if you get a chance. Thanks for your comprehensive and thoughtful review of your findings. Your experance shows.

Just a passing wondering, I know this may sound a bit absurd. Is there any chance at all, with that kind of wear/damage to the engine, that this truck may actually have a mileage of 1,190,000 miles??!! Could it actually be that you're just missing out on the first digit? Seriously - no cross hatch left except faintly on #1 cylinder? If it's only 190k it must have had a tractor pull sled behind it 70% of those miles? just a thought?

 

I don't know how hard it was driven before in it's previous life but a younger kid owned it and before that it was owned by a used car lot. I drove it pretty hard myself when I got it because I couldn't believe how strong it ran. I took out the lowering blocks out of the front suspension today and will pursue the rear drop shackles tomorrow. Pretty sad when you have your race car trailer hooked up on a 1ton dually and the reciever is about 8 inches from the ground. The only Bling this truck will have left is the Eagle alloy wheels and the 4 inch exhaust. Still working on pics for tomorrow hopefully.

 

Ok, I've been away from the computer for awhile. The fuel pump wiring on my daily driver went down only to find out the heater core is leaking on the garage queen(Vette)Got the new sending unit on my truck replaced and the Vette can wait til the weekend because I'm not pulling the entire dash out at night time. I'll wait till I can see all day long. The machine shop called w/ results on the measurements. The crank will make it on a .010/.010 turn, meaning small amount of metal removed to aquire perfect contact surface for the new rod and main bearings. The block will need .060 on the cylinders. The #5 hole had .027 worn into one side so .060 will get that. Then when it fried #3,and#6 pistons, the scoring was pretty deep. Now, I thought I could get .060 pistons but my parts guy told me "No" So now I'm at the point that I can sleeve #5 and #6, use .030 over pistons or get another block. I'm not finding any blocks,rebuildable cores,or even running used engines around here. The last little detail is the block will have to be decked as well since it has .005 warpage. Ugh!

 

This is a little ways from Texas, but fairly close to where I live. If you want I could look into thier service & reputation when I get a chance....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CUMMI...spagenameZWDVW

A little more for this one....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cummi...spagenameZWDVW

And this one probably has the wrong pump, but it would serve well too,

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CUMMI...spagenameZWD1V

hope this helps...

 

I've been looking at the first thread on ebay. It's a "rebuildable core" for $1250. I think that is pretty decent price, uh oh, I just looked to make sure and it's the starting bid. I'm trying to find an old ad from last month where a guy had a 93' for $1000. The injection pump had gone out and didn't have the money to fix it. At the time I didn't think I was going to need a block so I passed it up. Now I'm looking for it. Some of the posts on here mention finding new blocks at the dealer for$1100. If anyone knows where this is let me know... Thanks

 

Ok, didn't get much work done today but got all my phone calls done. I can get a spanking brand new block for $1047 from cummins. I'm tempted to do this since the machine work on the original block comes out to $820 and I'll have two sleeves in #5,and #6 to worry about. People tell me that it's different now,that sleeves are ok. Hmmh, feel like it's still a band aid. I've got somebody that came by the shop today trying to buy my truck as it sits and told him I'm not selling and come to find out he builds performance diesel engines. Well, long story short,he's got two extra blocks! I'm going to his house tomorrow night to look at em...Wish me luck.

 

$1050 aint bad for a block...
what did he want for one of his extra blocks

 

Ok, I finally got past Christmas and got the new camera. Had to refrain from buying one since I knew I was getting one. You know what your getting for Christmas when you go to the the store w/ your wife and you see something you like and go "Wow, I REALLY like that!" Just got to make sure you look at the wife the right way so she gets it in her head. Anyway, I took pictures of the pistons that came out of my motor but the machine work is all done and block,crank,and rebuild kit is sitting in my garage. I'll get pics of that tomorrow when I get home.