Lets hear some opinions please. Truck has 203k miles

Travis G (TDR member) helped me pull the head off on Saturday after I found my coolant had turned black Thursday

Here are some pictures of the cylinders and a picture of Cylinder #6 that has me and Travis a bit concerned.






Consensus is scored cylinder... Which I cannot do anything about right now $$ constraints.. (Just spent ~$8000 on turbo, injectors and a tranny on a truck that I still owe $$ on

I plan on getting the head o-ringed and throwing it back and and hoping for the best.

Here is something I plan to do though. It is my understanding that on the larger trucks equipped with the 5.9L Cummins, a coolant line is connected at the back of the block (where a freeze plug is placed on Ram pickups) that runs back to the radiator, making the cooling system a flow-through system rather than dead-ending at the back of the motor, therefore keeping the rear cylinders cooler. I plan on buying the kit from Cummins and installing it while I have it torn apart.
Has anyone done this?

Let me know what you think.

 

ouch!! that hurts

 

....or another 8K for a motor? If is was me...i would find a way to make it right.....something like that just doesnt get better.....and might make things TONS worse! Danceing on a razor blade here.......

 

Ouch!!! I agree with the others fix it wright the first time.

 

I agree with Dan. Things like this don't get better with age. If you've got another vehicle to drive then drive it while you wait for the money to fix that.

 

To clarify, the 3rd & 4th picture are of #6, the 2nd picture is of #2.

Someone suggested to me to drop the #6 piston to the bottom, put a rag over the piston, and lightly hone the cylinder to see if I can clear it up a bit..
Any opinions on that?

 

You might be able to do an In-Frame....and Try....TRY to hone the Cyl out.....BUT man...i just cant tell from the pic how deep the groves are...if any (BUT im not a machinest).....Looks like you piston skirt is making contact with the wall.....rings are not in good shape.......just do it right...i know it sucks...but would you want to put all that back together...with the $8000 of performance crap stressing the engine even more and a year or so later have to pull the engine due to major failure? It would be one thing if the engine was more.....Stock......

 

Yes....you would be waisting your time....you didnt fix the prob that caused the scuffing in the first place. Go price how much it is to Sleave one hole (If its not to that point already). It aint cheap......if you keep going....that is going to be your only option.......

 

The groove is just barely detectable with your fingernail, you can just feel the slight roughness.

I think I will just find a truck with a donor engine and have it built to swap in when and if this one goes..
Thats about all I can afford to do!

 

yeah...having a back up can work too........

 

Honing might take a little edge off the cylinder walls, but what about repairing the side of the piston skirt?
That piston is much softer than that cast iron cylinder.

 

IF you are on a budget do as you say. Drop the pistons on the bad holes and rehone the block. It will be better to have a cross hatch that isnt perfect than a verticle scuff that lets compression into the crankcase. You should also check the rings on the pistons that scuffed the walls. If they are beat up I would replace those 2 cylanders rings, all of them idealy but you said that you are on a budget. You may need to clean up the piston a little also with some croakus cloth. It may have a slight bur. With all that the motor should last fine for quite a while.

 

I see this often. It is EGT related. The rings are scoring the walls from expansion and oil burn off.

Always, always run an oil with a high flash point if you pull sleds, drag race or just run high EGT having fun as a hedge. Rings gaps need to be at least .025. I like more. Watch the EGT, it does big damage. Use water to keep EGT in check if you can.

You would be surprised just how many engines there are like this out there.

Don~

 

Just going by your pics, and not having actual measurements, I'd drop that one out and hone it. While you have it out, you will be able to tell the condition of the rings and piston. If there's a lot of wear present on the piston and/or rings, put new ones in on that one since you're on a budget. It should run a long time like that, might burn some oil after a while, but when it gets that bad, start looking for a back-up engine.

 

You mean blown headgaskets on these engines ??

Mine blew (2) months ago when it had 191,xxx miles on the clock.