Duramax Rebuild

[HiredHand]

Sorry to hear they didn’t have better news for your truck. Doug has always been straight forward and honest to my knowledge.

I don’t know much about those particular engines, but it does sound like there are a few ways to improve upon their particular weaknesses.

Look forward to hearing back from you.

 

[MR.T.]

Anyone know of a good 12 valve Cummins guy in the El Reno to Piedmont area.
My dads truck is down there with a buddy & has an issue with a cracked fronttiming cover or something & was told that the only way to get to this to fix it is to pull the engine.

 

[Mr.Glock]

Diesel Power Plus was a lot more honest. They said the reason why the cost is so high is simply those LB7 6.6 are so much labor to disassemble. He said the engine looks to be in great shape save the head gasket and one injector. Looks like I’ll be turning my Father in Laws shop into a diesel repair shop. Lol

I’m pretty excited to tear into another engine project. I just can’t justify paying someone $13-15k when I have the tools and know how to do it myself. This will be my first diesel rebuild but my FIL has done them before. I’ll probably update this thread in a year saying I’m finally finished and tally up how many Coors Light I went through. Haha

You can do it. Head gasket and new Injectors is doable if you can read.

 

[Mr.Glock]

Anyone know of a good 12 valve Cummins guy in the El Reno to Piedmont area.
My dads truck is down there with a buddy & has an issue with a cracked fronttiming cover or something & was told that the only way to get to this to fix it is to pull the engine.

Sounds like he had a dowel pin vibrate and drop. It is easy to get in the front while still in truck. Only thing that if it broke the crank. Then the engine will be pulled. There is a Dowel pin Kit and secure it. Geno’s Garage. He most likely broke teeth on the timing gear. The gear cover can be welded.

 

[MR.T.]

No, we had the dowel pin retainer kit put in about 2 years ago.
Truck still runs good & drives, & is a beast,
But 3 to 4 quarts of oil in a 2 hour drive is excessive.

 

[Lee Beaittie]

White smoke or steam IS a head gasket, I've done several over the past 10yrs if your mechanically inclined it will prob take you several weeks to a month parts and machinist time for heads and or block work. A "air" leak in a filter head will produce a no start, unless a lift pump has been added. A excess fuel problem will produce black smoke, and it could be several problems stuck injector can and will cause a burnt hole in a piston which will sound like and old 7.3.

 

[Mr.Glock]

No, we had the dowel pin retainer kit put in about 2 years ago.
Truck still runs good & drives, & is a beast,
But 3 to 4 quarts of oil in a 2 hour drive is excessive.

Again, you can remove the big front gear cover while engine stays in frame. Weld the crack. The dowel pin kit 2 years ago could have backed out as well. Won’t know till you pull the cover off.

 

[Mr.Glock]

 

[jeepjackazz]

Towed it to Diesel Power Plus today. Owner seems like a great guy. Hopefully they’ll get it in this week and I’ll get some good news.

Did you actually get to talk to the owner, or just a hand behind the counter. Whos rebuild kit will you be using, and whos fuel system? torque convertor upgrade while motors out? Drop and clean fuel tank, with add on lift pump or secondary filter?

 

[Bigdawg90]

Did you actually get to talk to the owner, or just a hand behind the counter. Whos rebuild kit will you be using, and whos fuel system? torque convertor upgrade while motors out? Drop and clean fuel tank, with add on lift pump or secondary filter?

Yeah I got to talk to the owner. He was there after hours when I dropped it off. Little power shop.com looks like it has some good deals. I’ll be looking for a machine shop and a transmission shop to rebuild the Allison. It’ll be a bone stock rebuild. I don’t need any additional performance, and don’t want to pay for it. Pulls my heavy trailers, but I’ve got a couple of buddies with 1 tons for the twice a year I need them.

I ordered the GM shop manual and started an excel budget for the rebuild. Everything I’m reading basically makes out to just be really time consuming. Doesn’t seem like it requires much specialized tools, and I don’t know why I expected the engine to be far heavier. A 2 ton lift should do it just fine.