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

a cat crate motor is about 35 grand

 

What does a platinum kit go for ? Anyone know ?

 

Seen a thread on here a day or two ago that had a quote on a platinum kit with labor. It was an acert twin turbo for 17000.00 and some change. Since that was a twin turbo engine I would think a 5ek would be less.
We put a platinum kit in our sons 1MM C16 last year for 9800 Parts only less turbo. I buy a lot of parts thru the CAT dealer for equipment they worked with me on the turbo as we wanted something different and hated to buy one we would never use. The bad part was it cost 14000.00 to bring it all home because of cores. Took a month to get all the cores approved and our money back there.

 

At 2,000 labor a friend put 12,700, with trade in reconn. head, reconn.injec.+bearings prem.piston kits,oil/pump, his rocker arm bushings were worn thru, so recon arms,ft.cover was not pulled.

 

I am in the exact same boat with my truck. I've put a lot into it the last now 3 years I've owned it, and like you say I know what I have. A newer truck would be nice, I'd love a 'Holy Grail' 6NZ or 7CZ engine, but my old 5EK still runs with the best of em. I've had quite a few headaches over these last 3 years working on my rig, replacing stuff I didn't know existed, etc. After all this time my headaches and 'bad days' are getting to be fewer and further between. Its kinda nice.

I would without a dbout use the 550 internals. If I'm going to rebuild a engine for 15-20K, I'd just as soon spend an extra few thousand and build a real stump puller. Maybe not go with a platinum kit and run the cam and injectors Mr Haney has suggested in a thread here, no sense in getting a cam in a kit you're not even going to use.

I don't know for positive what internals my 5EK has, but it runs like a 500 or 550. I'd love to squeeze a few more ponies out of it, but until I pull that motor down and rebuild it I could be running a thin line with melting it down and having to do a rebuild early. Rebuilding is one thing but rebuilding due to running too hot of a tune would sure make me mad at myself.

On a newer truck. Sure one would be nice, but as 'wore out' put a newer used truck is just going to be someone else's problems. More likely than not they're getting rid of it cause they're starting to have a lot of the '$500-$1000 problems'. I don't like the notion of buying a truck with a freshly rebuilt engine, leads me to belive a guy popped the motor, took and traded the truck in, and you KNOW the dealership likely used the cheapest rebuild parts they could get their greasy little fingers on.
A glider kit would be really nice, but in my case I don't see it being a option unless I were to win the lottery; In which case the next morning I would order 10, and not plan to drive one of them!

 

I'm Going to PM you a guy that has a CAT for $5000, ive never seen it but it has had an inframe 100k miles ago. I also know where another is for $4200, I believe its a E model 3406. They arent mine, ive just been seeing them in classifieds lately

 

The 6TS doesn't have the crankshaft problems that the 5ek had. What was changed exactly I don't remember. Anything could happen with a 300 thousand mile overhaul. But it could with a 20000 dollar inframe too. From what you said about the 6TS I would probably lean that way 14grand is a lot of money and it gets you away from the 5ek crank. Which I have only seen one 3406 E with a broke crank but it was a 5ek. Broke right in front of the flywheel.

 

I had a 6TS that broke the crank in the front at a little over a million miles. There are no guarantees no matter which prefix you get.