blew head gasket today, not sure how much i want to dump in this motor, opinions?

I can tell you first hand these guys are 100% correct on the liner protrusion.

Bought 1998 M11 in late 2006 IIRC. Blew a head gasket within a month. KW dealer put a new gasket on. Blew again within a couple months and this time it warped the cylinder head beyond what could be planed. Dealer took the blame because they re-used the head bolts and they didn't charge labor. A few months down the road it blew a head gasket a third time. This time I called a local old timer who knows Cummins. He said it's prolly got a sunken liner. He checked and it did (still don't know how he could tell it's such a small amount). He did rods, mains, liners, pistons and planed the new head assy. That was about 2009 or so and we are still running the old girl (more reliable than the 2005 and the 2008 touch wood). Best money ever spent should have went to the old guy first.

 

Personally I would remove the block and have it decked. That is if your planning to keep it. Something to consider is having the crank, rods , flywheel and pistons balanced. From memory you have a 5Ek ? They are prone to snapping the crank so a nice balanced internal components and injectors will make it last.

 

When I did my motor I pulled the front cover and replaced the bearings on all of the gears up front too.

 

Have you priced their crate motors? I'm sure the price is staggering ......

 

I think a crate motor would be the way to go if it's being fixed to keep. With 1.9 mil on it the block needs to be decked and line bored. The crank really needs to be magged and polished since the 5EKs are prone to breaking cranks anyway. When you add that to the cost of a platinum kit and the additional labor of an out of frame I doubt the cost would be much different. Another plus is there would be less down time in the shop.

 

Decking the block is slang for machining of the top surface of the block.


Head gasket life,liner protrusion are related to the condition of top deck of the block.

I'm not sure of the tolerances ......

 

It's not real common for an independent to have the equipment but possible. I use a guy that comes to our shop and does it with block in truck if we are just in framing. He cuts them all then finds the deepest one and recuts the rest to match exactly. Some just use shims under the liner to get liner height to specs. I like them all within .002 of each other. If you want to get crank polished and block line bored that is done at a machine shop.