thats fine if thats what they suggest. many ways to skin a cat here, all im giving is personal preference.
Another Broken Crank
- Thread starter OleBlackyLBZ
- Start date
Agreed. My local machine shop charges $4.10 per my last invoice (making them $1.03 per plug) for all 4 plugs and charges $75 labor to tap the block and R&R cam bearings making them a no brainer there at least.
I'm going to let him do it how he prefers, but if there was even a slight possibility I was going to spin more rpm's and run race oil down the road I wouldn't hesitate. Either way thanks for the input, it's something I didn't know so I learned a little more.
Broke a piston. Keep in mind the motor was built way back in 2009 when the only piston options were cut/coated LB7 pistons or forged pistons that were not recommended for regular street use. I was close to 1000 hp with my truck, and the cut/coated stock pistons just couldn't deal with it.
Speaking of pistons, anyone have experience with the KB replacements for the Duramax? They have 16.8:1, 17.5:1, and stock compression height or -.010". Doesn't look like they have a "delipped" bowl as the Mahle, but they're cheaper than stock LB7s, and retain the pin offset
Funny you should say that. It's either a love or hate relationship with KB, I'm not on the hate side personally
So im needing to buy a complete gasket kit, does anyone know which gasket thickness I should get? And who has the best price on a complete gasket kit
If he's still around, get with Henry at Creatures of the Night performance. (S/V) He's usually has the best prices on things like that.
Things that I recommend are if you are building a engine don’t use stock parts. They are only designed to do so much. I would not run a stock crack, rods, pistons , springs or pushrods. People keep pushing the limits and finding the limits and because your friend had good luck with stock parts doesn’t really mean anything. I recommend upgrading anything that you can afford to do and believe me if you can afford to do it twice you can afford to do it right once.
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The ideal method is to measure piston protrusion and buy the gasket that is correct for that protrusion. If you went with motorsport pistons, they already have 0.010 removed from compression height so they usually use a thinner gasket. I would either ask DHD to tell you what gasket you need or measure protrusion yourself. Most guys run a "C" thickness gasket by default as it makes it zero measuring effort and the truck still runs good but the proper way is to measure protrusion.
I also have extremely competitive prices on gasket sets, let me know if I can help get you squared away.
I also have extremely competitive prices on gasket sets, let me know if I can help get you squared away.
I agree with you but money is usually the problem, my way of looking at it is if your going to upgrade every single part in the engine then you might as well throw a socal billet crank in there, by then your $20,000+ deep in an engine not counting fuel/air/trans to get the good out of that engine. Or you can spend $7,000 on a budget build and keep it 600-650hp and it should be about as reliable as that $20,000 engine at 1,200hp and probably even more so. It all depends on your goals, I don't know nearly as much as a lot of you guys but that's just my opinion. I feel like I would have been super happy with my first budget build had I used a new crank and had someone build it that I knew for sure could build one to last.
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To be fair, we have zero evidence (unless I missed a smoking gun somewhere) that they did anything wrong.
I'm not saying he for sure messed mine up at all. All I'm saying is I'm not 100% for sure he knows what he is doing but this time around I have absolutely zero doubts about the worksmanship. With another truck in the same shop with another low mileage engine from the same place and low oil pressure I have my doubts. I have another cousin with a near fully built engine from them with about 10,000 miles on it so time will tell. He is currently only running about 550hp on it. The guy working on the low oil pressure engine said he has went over it several times and can't find anything wrong, he is starting to think bearing clearances are off and it's jacking with the oil pressure. Does this seem likely?
I can vouch for Brad services. I have purchased several parts from him including gaskets.
