What to do? Seeking advise....

[DitchDr]

Greetings.

I have a 96 K2500 with 220K miles on the clock. I took it to Ft Worth Tx this weekend and lost a cylinder. Fould out number is zero on compression. Wont even move the needle. The rest of the holes are right at 310 psi.

I am trying to decide...

1. Drag it home to Hutchinson KS to fix it my self. Have to get the truck here and loaded single axle trailer it was pulling.

2. Have it fixed in Texas.

3. New long block or reman. In the last 5K miles I have replaced the injectors, turbo, alternator, crank sensor, oil pressure switch, PDM with cooler. I know I am forgetting something.

I have some concerns about having a shop I don't know work on my truck.
I will have to work on that I guess.

I plan on keeping the truck but this has hit at a bad time as we are in the middle of building a new house.

The shop in Texas suggested a Jasper engine. I was on their web site and did not see long blocks just complete engines.

What about a GM long block? Anyone have experience with any of these?

Then there is Marshall engines. I don't have any knowledge about these folks.

Any comments, experience or suggestions welcome.

I'm all ears... rather eyes:)

[JTodd]

What happened to the bad hole? Before you start spending money on a block, see if you lost a valve retainer or something.

[More Power]

What happened to the bad hole? Before you start spending money on a block, see if you lost a valve retainer or something.

The above is the best advice! Never decide what to do till you know what happened... ;)

I remember talking to a 6.2L diesel owner a few years ago who was pretty proud of his diesel pickup. He had done quite a lot to make it nice, but one day the engine fell down.... It wouldn't run, so he advertised the truck locally and sold it for not a lot.

The new owner called him the next day to report that be found that a shop rag was plugging the intake. He removed the rag, and it ran beautifully..... :(

Jim

[DitchDr]

Well a cylinder leak down test was done which revealed air in the crankcase and out the exhaust. Sounds like new engine time....

[AKMark]

Well a cylinder leak down test was done which revealed air in the crankcase and out the exhaust. Sounds like new engine time....

Ouch, sounds like rebuild or new engine time. I like the look of the new 6.5L talked about here (http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/tdpforum/showthread.php?t=31362).


I rebuilt two 6.2's, and after both had major issues (crank related) I let them go. If my current 6.5 ever needs replacing, I'm thinking of the P400 myself. Although rebuilding costs much less than the new motor (if you do all but the machine work yourself), having them fail, one when it was -40F and almost thirty miles from home, another during a 3500 mile move pulling a trailer, is not something I ever want to experience again.

Good luck no matter which motor you choose, I'm sure it'll work better than your current one, and will cost far less than parting our the current truck and getting a newer one. (Been there, done that, learned several lessons)

[DitchDr]

Thanks for the replys. It looks like a reman will be going in. Since my truck is five hundred miles from my garage I will have to trust the shop where it is at.
I hope the Jasper engins are as good as what I have been hearing about them.

Well the truck will be in prety good shape when done....

[JTodd]

Head gasket? Broken ring?