6.2L Trouble

[BobQ]

Well, the crank in my dad's '84 K2500 broke last week. He was driving down the freeway doing about 55-60 mph when it started knocking. The knocking was steadily getting louder and he was trying to limp it home with the crank let go. The oil pressure and coolant temp were both fine while all of this was happening and it didn't smoke at all. As far as we can tell from the service records (he bought the truck about 4 months ago), the engine has about 153,000 miles on it, but I've noticed that the oil pan and front cover both have gray silicone around the edges, so someone must have been in the engine before.

Anyway, we're trying to weigh all of the options regarding a replacement 6.2L.

Has anyone had good luck with the low mileage military 6.2L's as replacement engines? There is a company in Utah called Boyce Equipment that sells CUCV take-out 6.2L's for $950. These engines are complete from the air cleaner to the exhaust manifolds to the oil pan. The only things that they remove are the dual alternators and the starter. Has anyone bought a 6.2L from Boyce?

There are a couple of parts trucks for sale locally. One is an '86 6.2L with about 200,000 miles and the other is a '92 6.5L TD with about 140,000 miles. Would the 6.5L be worth getting since it has the 599 block and 4911 pump? Has anyone had good luck with using higher mileage engines as replacements without doing a complete rebuild on them? What would be a fair price for a used 6.2L or 6.5L?

Also, are there any Diesel Page vendors that folks have had good luck with regarding replacement engines? We're trying to keep costs down, so we were trying to avoid spending $5,000 on an engine.

What are your suggestions?

Thanks for your help.

[Robyn]

Hello

Uesed engines can be a boon or a bust and there is no way to know what you are getting without looking inside the thing before hand.

Some of the MIL stuff is great and some are junk.

I would get the one you have apart and see how bad it is.

Buying a used 6.2 IMHO should be as a parts engine only and if you can get a NO crack gaurantee its a good thing.

Take stock in what you have thats salvageable and then move forward from there.

Keep us posted

Robyn