To the junkyard or not?

[briencolgan]

Hi everyone I have a question about an old 2003 3500 stock LB7. A good mechanic says it’s got lower block noise which is piston related. So it’s time for a complete tear down. Which I’ve never done. I worked on all the peripherals. I’ve gone as deep as replacing injectors that’s about it.

There is a gas Ford F3 50 for sale in my price range about 2500 bucks. It’s about the same for a used LB seven and an Allison transmission together.

Anybody have any idea how long it takes to swap out an engine in a tranny?

Just not sure if I should ride out to New Jersey and bring his old truck back with his own new set of problems or stick with the buried bodies in my old Chevy.


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[briencolgan]

Also this thing is just rolling Coal like you would not believe. To the point where I have to drive the back roads to save face in a small town while I’m going to work. The wastegate operates but only with 100 psi’s of pressure. Is that a blown turbo? I have been starting it with snorts of ether. That’s the only way the thing will start currently.

Balance rates are not too far out of spec. And I guess there’s rods and pistons for sale for just a couple hundred bucks as a third option.


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[clrussell]

Are you sure you aren’t having injector issues? Almost sounds to me like one is hung open

 

[2004LB7]

Hung injector(s) can also make it rattle real good. If the mechanic is not real familiar with the duramax, he may diagnose it as something else. But he may be right and the injector may have flooded the crank case with diesel and ruined the crank. Try doing the paper towel test

 

[briencolgan]

Sorry thanks for the reply I got distracted. I did do a paper towel test but I really can’t tell if there’s diesel in it or not is it really obvious when the ring spreads Because I wasn’t seeing anything


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[briencolgan]

I’ll take a look at it with the scanner and see what the balance rates are. Can you have balance rates that are almost in spec and still have a hung injector?


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[Dukchunter]

I would be doing a compression test before going any further. You statement about using ether to start it throws a red flag to me that you have low compression on atleast 1 cylinder. Could be injector related but if it needs ether to start im going to say there is something more at play here.

Its probably faster to swap an engine in these trucks than to do an injector change.

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[2004LB7]

2x on compression test