I bought An International FL 60 W/ISB 215 engine in 1999 purchased the extended service contract for 5 years.My contract expired on August 24th/04,within days before the contract expiring we developed a leak of coolant and could not find the problem. I took the truck to cummins cal pacific here in cal onsept !st.within a week of the trouble,as I was out of state for 3 weeks during that time,when they recieved the truck the contract had already expired.The service manager then called me with the bad news cracked block under exhaust mamafold on the passenger side.well to make things short they will not replace anything because it came in after the warranty expired. If cummins knows about this kind of stuff going on they should send out some kind of service advisories to the owners of these problem engines.I am in negotiations with them at this time but it does not look good.I have heard of this problem alot of timeswith certain blocks.As for now I am on my way to the top management at Cummins to get Justice.Has anybody else had this kind of problem with Cummins engines?

 

Yes
My 99 cracked at 5 years 2 months 53k miles. It has been replaced for a certain amount of money. I am still fighting this one and may carry it to the grave. I am getting nowhere with Chrysler or Cummins and now have an investigative TV network looking into this problem. I also filed with NHSTA under the defective equip. section and the BBB is next.
Good luck with yours as this requires a lot of stamina and creates a lot of aggrevation trying to get a company to stand behind it's product.

Dave

 

Sounds like the infamous #53 block? Bri-dog, check out the sides of the engine up near the front. If the number 53 is cast on the side of the block, search this site and others for information about it. There's a lot of material for you to check out if this is the case.

Matt

 

I have a FL60 Freightliner that has a crack in the block also. Just under the turbo on the passenger side. Has anyone had any luck with having this looked at as a problem related to this specific block? Any luck on getting this repaired or replaced? It seems it may very well be a manufacturing issue, not misuse by the truck owners.

 

Yep, the "53" blocks are prone to cracking. They came out in 98, and I think went to around 01. Not all 98-01 trucks have them, but a lot of them i have seen do. When they crack it is almost 100 percent of the time just under the exhaust manifold towards the rear of the engine. Not all of them crack, but some quite a few of them do crack too. My dad, and uncle both have one. Bither over 100k, and neither cracked, and hope it stays that way.

Eric

 

Are you sure you have an International? The FL designation is a Freightliner product. They have FL 60,70,80 etc. Not that it matters on the engine but it don't look good for ya when you call the dealerships/repair shops asking about it that way.

 

i feel your pain my 2000 had a 53 block that cracked 103 miles over the warrenty and DC said sorry bud tuff luck

 

Just JB Weld The edit...says right on the package that its been done.

 

yes I have! I own 1999 2500 dodge with the famous #53 block that cracked last January on the way from Arizona to Colo, with 110,000 miles on it . called dodge & was refered to cummins. dealt with cummins via e-mails & all they would do was pay for parts if i paid labor & work was done by cummins. labor quote was $3775.99. needless to say i was shocked, but what was i to do?, trade it in & pass my trouble onto someone else plus have a truck payment! so they installed a new block, crank, pistons etc. & gave me 6 month/6,000 mile warranty! fought like hell to get the warranty closer to original, but they wouldn't budge.i got my truck back & have had no troubles as yet. you know you're not the only one when a company called Lock-n-Stitch makes a specific kit to repair the #53 block. i'm just a blue collar guy, & could not afford to do more than repair my truck. if you wish to contact me you may @ zeedooda@juno.com. best of luck with your fight w/cummins. Also, cummins' blocks were manuf. in south america @ several different locations with casting #s indicating where they are manuf. the 53's are the only ones to crack, under the turbo about 1/2 way down the block due to a casting flaw that cummins won't admit to. ther was a post on this site with excellent info & facts to back it up. will try to find & foreward .

 

http://www.stamey.info/Truck/Cummins53BlockFAQ.htm

 

Look at this product http://www.locknstitch.com/ . I'd check into doing this if it was mine. I've had detroit diesel heads that were repaired with this product and it works great. Could save you a lot of money.