I have done lots of motor work, several rebuilds, and I am a mechanic by trade. But I have never been into a diesel that far. But the biggest drawback is not having anywhere to do it. I am not real big on leaving an engine open to that degree in my driveway haha I believe I will have time to sort through options but I'd like to have some viable ones to start running down. My mechanic recently purchased a local wrecked truck with a known good engine. It was parked due to what turned out to be a ficm issue, but now the engine will most likely go into another customers truck that has already had an engine changed. But unfortunately for him, the motor he bought and had shipped here for install, is actually worse than the one that came out. But I am keeping an eye out for local used engines and getting quotes from online vendors. Anyone ever used diesel redemption? From what I gathered they pull the motors transmissions and accessories off retired municipal videos. And any motor that runs well and has no leaks under 50k miles gets sold as complete.

 

 

That's kind of what I was thinking. I wouldn't worry about the bottom end so much as the heads and gaskets. I've thought of buying one from a salvage yard and getting it rebuilt with all the goodies if it the motor that is in it will hold on for a while.