I won't give you any crap about it JP. Most of us can't afford to do all we want at one time anyway. A few can and that is great, but for the rest of us that is completely normal!

 

I don't blame you either JP. Unless a guy has a couple grand to drop into what he wants, he is dumb not to work with what he has. If you have one that is ready to bolt on and it is going to save you money on parts to use SD parts, I think that's the way to go. The SD turbo flows a little more than the OBS turbo does too (that's why it sometimes has surge issues) so it should make slightly better power for you.

 

Well, glad to know I wont get ribbed too hard for this sort of plan :-). I've been pinging the guys on the SD forum for info on their stock turbo, trying to learn a bit before making the decision final.

Seems like aside from the surge issues, it's a decent unit. And as long as you keep an eye out for it, it's not too big a deal. Plus I already have the 'wicked wheel' fix ready to go - and free :-) Wish I had more time to work on the engine this weekend. Now that the second manifold is off, feel like I cleared a big hurdle and just want to start buying parts and putting her back together! I have ALOT of cleaning and painting to do first, though, but that's pretty mindless work.

Oh, just though of something - anyone know the threads for the HP oil rail plugs (and icp)? I want to buy a few extra plugs to keep everything sealed while brushing/blasting/sanding/painting. I know the fuel rails are 1/8" pipe, but I remember the oil rail being a jic fitting and I'm not too good with that system.

 

I think they are 3/8 o-ring.

If you do sd up pipes you will HAVE to use the sd turbo. the sd uses a vband connection where the collector meets turbo vs 4bolt obs flange.

 

Thanks for the size. Is that 3/8 jic connection? Or is it called an "o ring" connection.

And, yeah, the connection at the turbine inlet look much different. Looks much easier to remove an SD turbo by the way. Just a bunch of hose and band clamps and the two bolts on either side of the bearing...

 

OK, so here’s my pics and some more discussion of the progress from this past weekend.
After some serious frustration on Friday in failing to loosen any but the front and rear bolts on the driver’s side manifold, I thought, let me see if I can even get the cut off bolts out of the manifold on the passenger side, first. Sure enough, it took A LOT of pounding to get what looked like the least stuck bolt out and here’s what it looked like once free:

Thanks right! significant manifold material attached to the underside of the bolt flange/head. So much so that there’s no way that new hardware could get good purchase on the manifold if I were to reinstall it – short of welding material back onto the hole and drilling from the back side, the manifold is junk. And even if I went that route, that’d be 5 more bolts to pound or drill out, all of which look worse than the first one that came out:


At this point, I was just about ready to cut my losses and leave the driver’s side manifold in place – so that I only had to buy one new manifold. Thankfully, though – my buddies on FTE were the voice of reason and gently persuaded me to bite the bullet and cut it off and replace. I did so on Sunday morning and boy was I glad I did. there was a definitely leak on Cylinder 6:


Needless to say, I’m quite glad I removed it and didn’t have to chase that leak down later and remove the manifold once the engine was back in the truck.
I also think I found the source of the tapping sound that was always present on the passenger side of this engine. After separating the up-pipes from the manifolds, here are flanges that mate to the manifolds, side-by-side, DS on the left, PS on the right:

There is a clear clean-metal ring on the DS pipe, but nothing but lots of rust on the PS side. My theory is that all that rust and corrosion on the bolts necked them down to almost nothing such that they lost enough strength to stretch out and let the flange separate from the manifold. I’d think this would definitely lead to hearing the valves open and close from that side of the truck.

I guess this and the completely seized manifold bolts are just a few of the bad things that can happen to the engine on a plow truck over the years...

Anyway – I also pulled the harmonic balancer and did some minor cleaning. I think I’m going to leave the HPOP and LPOP in place until after I get the block all cleaned up – no need to have more holes than necessary during cleaning. I’m waiting on an assortment pack of plugs to show up in the mail so that I can plug everything up real good before wiping and blowing dirt and grime everywhere!
Also, once I pull the oil pan and inspect the bottom end (I’ll probably pull it, inspect, then replace it before cleaning), I’ll feel comfortable enough to start spending money on rebuild parts!
That means, its time to start my rebuild thread, and start getting opinions on the fun stuff 

As a preview, though, I’ve started adding up costs of on things and I’m already clear of $3000 – and I’ve been telling the wife ~$2000 all along, so I’ll have some explaining to do :-( I guess this definitely means that i'll have to use the stock SD turbo for now...

 

Nice man! So you're leaving the bottom end in tact and just replacing all of the outward components? (Been a while since I read the start of this thread)
Not to jump the gun on the soon-to-be build thread, but have you given thought to injectors to go with that SD?
If you take a gander at Ebay there tends to be quite a bit of S366s available new or used.
That and you could probably use other people's knowledge to build yourself a mounting kit/uppies.

Im eager to see hows yours goes! My engine is currently down to the block. I've got it all out except the freeze plugs. I want it hot tanked and everything nice n purty!

 

yep - as long as nothing looks obviously awry with the oil pan off, the bottom end and heads will remain untouched (except for in-place head stud install). I just don't have the time or funds to do a complete rebuild and with the compression numbers checking out OK and "only" 199k on this engine, hopefully i'll be OK for another 100k or so more. however, the engine that this will be replacing will definitely get completely torn down (albeit, much slower than this build) as its got 357k on the clock right now.

i'll be jealous of how clean your will be, though for sure. I plan to brush, blast and wipe her down as clean as I can, then cover everything with some new engine paint, but I'm sure your proper cleaning will look better and help the paint to last longer!

I was thinking of trying the used market for a better turbo, but considering where I am on my current parts list and budget, even that may have to wait... i'll put more of my thoughts into the build thread, but maybe i'll do some more investigation prior...

 

If compression checked out and the blowby was minimal I would say more than 100k.. I've seen some trucks with bad compression continue running for a while.
Sounds good though! I hear you on the money thing. Once I get it all cleaned up and the bottom end re-assembled up to the heads. The rest of the accessories will probably end up waiting a while.

 

yeah, compression was good, and there was zero blowby when the engine was in my old truck - I didn't know what blowby was until I got my current truck (a great deal, but high miles and smoke coming out the dipstick). I'm telling myself 100k, but hoping for much more :-)

and yeah, I'm probably in the same boat. just did a first go at a parts budget and I was darn near $4k with just the basics - and I told the wife ~$2 previously. I gots some serious 'splanin' to do.

 

How many miles on your truck Alex?

 

OK, guys – this should be my last post (or at least last one reporting real progress) on this disassembly thread. I got the oil pan off this weekend and inspected the bottom end as well as I could without disassembling the rotating assembly.

I’ll summarize my findings below, but if there are any recommendations for other things to check before closing her back up, I’d appreciate it! Nate – I have it on my list to check the cylinder oil jets. Didn’t get to that yet, but will def do that. I’m guessing that the main bearings and connecting rod bolts are all loctited, so re-torquing would only potentially do more harm than good?

Bottom End: here’s an overview pic. Everything looked nice and clean and there were not obviously problems or perforations in the oil pickup tube.


Close-up: one question I do have pertains to some discoloration of the crank shaft. It almost looks like a paint mark from the factory, but it seems too big for that. It may be tough to see in this picture, but its dead center and on the crankshaft counterbalance lobe. Its kind of similar in color (a light yellow) to he spots on the heads where the injector oil spouts hit – not sure if that’s normal either – maybe due to some water/coolant in the oil at some point in time?


Cylinder walls: Everything looked good here. the factory cross-hatch hone marks are clearly visible on all cylinders with the combustion portion of the chamber not looking any more worn than the last inch or so (where combustion and ring-travel would not occur). if I looked very very closely, I could make out a vertical scratch or two on one or two of the cylinders, but they were definitely not deep and I could not get them to show up in any picture I took. Also, the pistons were all gleaming new-looking aluminum with no misalignment wear on the bottom guide tabs (for lack of a better word).


Overall I’m pretty happy with the inspection. I did find a few spots where rust was just coming through the oil pan to the inside, so I’ll be replacing that guy. Also, I found that my oil dipstick adapter was mushroomed out, as pointed out by Bill with his fix, but I’ll post that pic in his thread.

Now, its time to start the RE-assembly thread and start buying parts! I’ll probably spend another weekend cleaning up the block before I go an buy anything, but I’m getting close!
And by the way, I decided I’m going to leave the HPOP and lines in place until after the cleaning. I’ll plug up all other holes, put the valve covers and oil pan back on to protect that stuff, but figured it was easiest just to leave the HPOP system sealed before spreading degreaser and dirt everywhere!

 

awesome thread! looks great.

are you going to be painting the block?

 

Man JP, that bottom end looks good. I am anxious to see how it turns out.

 

yep, definitely painting it. right now, I'm thinking of a black and grey color scheme. for all that effort, I can't see doing it all black again like from the factory. plus, my truck will be all black in the end - under the hood will be where the color is - if you can call grey a color :-)

thanks - yeah, I was happy to see it so clean. amazing how rusty the outside of the block can be from years of plowing (by the PO), but how clean the insides can remain.

I can't wait to get putting her back together.