Inframe vs. crate/rebuilt motor

..................been bird doggin' ya for while, always interested in what you have to say about the 12.7......

I especially was curious about the details of your O.H., ............ how far you went and what the costs were, but didn't want to pry...........so thanks for sharing.

Now I'll keep an eye out for the short and long term verdict/ observations if you're in the mood.

I've got decisions to make and issues to ponder here for my 925k ddecv ., so I'm on the hunt for insight........ Thanks

 

PM me, anytime. I’ve got plenty to say, ( sometimes too much, I’m told) Lol. Don’t want to hi jack the thread. I’m happy with the job, especially the Mechanic. Very careful about letting anyone work on my Truck. Learned the hard way, in the past. Don’t like surprises that cost $$$. Can’t stand to see anyone get ripped off.

 

thanks for the offer, sir, I'll take you up on it...........I'm absolutely obsessed with my motor and it's future.

 

I might need a pig this summer, my relatives in Louisiana like to do a Boucheree’ on occasion!!!!

 

At what point did you decide to do it?
Was it low oil pressure or some bad oil samples or anything you noticed or felt?
I am kinda curious, if one needs to wait until some specific maximum mileage, not to push the luck or rather for some sort of mechanical indication.

 

I ran it as long as possible, it had a lot of blow by, for years, but good oil pressure and power. It had blown an injector, and waterpump went out. Don’t know if head cracked before or after, but it was pushing coolant. Ran it about 3000 miles like that,Lol. Had it not been for head, I would have replaced the 1 injector, and ran it some more. But since the head had to come off, it was way overdue anyway. But as long as it’s not pushing coolant, or mixing fluids, and oil pressures good. I’ll run one. Usually a liner will drop on the 12.7s and blow head gasket. This one just kept going, had roughly 1.3 mil on an inframe, that was done at 825k. I also had the original bull gear changed, it had over 2 mil miles. Surprisingly it was still in good shape.The bearings and cylinders looked good, except 4 of them had marks from the valves hitting.Mechanic said he’s never seen that before, wondered if the head was milled too much or had some wrong parts in it, We had a Factory Engineer from Detroit look at them, said it was likely caused by worn valve guides.The dead cylinder looked all burnt and crusty, it was pushing unburned oil and fuel out into the exhaust. You could see it around the exhaust manifold gasket, and in the exhaust pipe.It was way overdue. This engine, and my last one, both had dropped cylinder sleeves at 825k. I wanted to see how far it would go. Usually, 1 mil-1.3, is about the most. After that it’s just a matter of time. Oil samples, can help catch a problem early ofcourse. I ran 2 on mine. 1 after I bought it. at about 900k. Along with an overhead. It had 75k on the OH, at the time.And another sample, 2 yrs ago. With over 1 mil. on OH. Both samples were almost identical, Never ran the overhead again.Only things I ever did to it in 12 yrs. we’re 2 injectors, and 2 turbos, and a clutch fan. Had to change the o rings on oil coller, at the block, 5 yrs ago. I plan on maintaining it better this time around. Changing oil at 15k instead of 20k, and running overhead regularly. I got my money’s worth out of it. The last one I had, and this one, both needing an OH at 825k, was a disappointment, for the so called million mile engine. On average all 3 are still shy of 1 mil.ea. On avg. So this one has to last at least 1.1 mil. To live up to the million mile title. Lol

 

All these huge #'s being thrown around. I run a '12 386 Pete with an ISX. In Nov it went into an independent shop for diagnosis of it using coolant. It turned into a rebuild. Liners, bearings, head, radiator, water pump, etc. It didnt get rods, pistons, turbo or injectors because of the relatively low miles on them. The OTD price was just over $8500 which I found out later there was a $200 charge for painting the engine. Even though this is a co truck, I made the issue known as I trust this shop and it was my choice to use them. This price also includes a warranty, but I cant remember the exact #'s on it. If all the excluded components were included, the price would've jumped to approximately $15,000, maybe a grand or 2 more.

As an owner/operator its upto YOU to get the best price for needed work and know what theyre doing and why. If you dont know how an engine works, what components do what, then you're going to get taken advantage of at every turn.

There are still shops out there that value the customer and work hard to KEEP customers, not just make a bunch of $ in one shot and not care if you come back. Do your due diligence and find a shop you can trust.

 

I sure hope they put new rings, you didn’t mention it, but I’m sure they did. A piston- less kit can be had a lot cheaper, and like you say, not everything always needs to be replaced. My Problem with the OEM kits/ warranties is in order to get the 300k warranty, they make you buy turbo, waterpump, doesn’t matter if yours are new.