you ain’t lying.

$1000 HPOP, J tube, oil lines, stand pipes
$1400 injectors
$50 glow plug harness
$40 new glow plugs for one side
$300 in seals and head gaskets
$250 lifters
$700 camshaft
$150 glow plug control module
$25 in new hardware
$40 fuel filters
$20 oil filter
$300 oil
$600 machine shop work
$2300 cylinder heads
$450 studs
$120 push rods
$100 new hoses
$250 cam bearings, rod bearings, main bearings
$180 piston rings
$100 turbo VGT refresh
$350 up pipes
$75 egr kit
$200 miscellaneous crap

Ouch don’t let my wife see the bill. Still cheaper than a new diesel that I can’t afford.

 

I tapped my manifold while the engine was out. Getting around to doing the SCT EGT sensor. Nice and easy. Hoping this tow tune is pretty mild. I’d like to stay below 1250 max. Maybe tonight I can check it out.

 

The guy follows me on YT and understands the situation with surface finish. The more he got into it with the shop, the more he realized, like many shops, "it's a good finish and we don't have any issues." Trying to talk to them that the OE finish is 30Ra and under was underwhelming. Most of these blocks can get skinned for 0.001" to 0.002" and be fine. The coolant pits are not an issue.

 

So 9k and you've probably missed things. Overall, the machining costs are pitance.

I don't even want to count mine.

And the labor time. Normally I futz around, think about things, think about doing it better. Add in I was video taping all of this adds about 5x to the projects.

 

Yeah my machine shop was pretty competent. They knew right away an MLS gasket likes a smooth finish. Decking the block for me has always been a standard practice on the 351 Windsor engines I’ve played with. A lot of times going for a zero deck with the pistons. I think we all agree it should have been done and a new short block should have a new surface finish. No 3M whizz pads. I certainly would not take the chance or send out a product that looked sub par with my company name attached.

 

Yep. Overall it’s not the end of the world. The chassis is a 8/10 and the interior is mint. Those excursions are going for crazy money right now.
I paid 12,000 for it. I think I could sell it for 20-25K right now. It’s an investment I reckon as we plannned to keep it for almost ever. Until the EPA goons come along and force us all into EV’s scaring us with pictures of melting icebergs and baby seals.

i suspect this would have been 14-16K if a shop did the work.

 

If I had bought a short block and saw such a deck like on Jack's pic when I unpacked it, I would probably throw up. For me, this is not a professional job.
I currently have a block at the machine shop again and will take more pictures this time and show them to you. I had with the old pistons 0.6-0.7mm piston protrusion, max value is 0.9mm, so that should be enough for a clean deck.
Gentlemen, about the costs here in Germany: with all the work on the engine including new injectors, new pistons, polished crank, polished cam, new heads, new front cover with pump....IPR EGR delete with filter and renewed heater core on the truck are due here 30K (€ and $ currently have almost the same value.)
And if you now consider that an EGR cooler was responsible for the work,.....

 

We’ll I did me some WOT testing and I don’t like what I saw at all. 600-850f cruising. Then I stomped it from 20 to about 85 and the temperatures climbed to the sky, 1100,1200,1300,1400,1500,1600. Granted it was only a very short time. I don’t think I’ll be running this “tow” tune anymore. Probably go back to stock fueling and a transmission tune. Holy smokes!!!

 

Loaded in the stock tune. Truck is more sluggish and docile. The temperature control is so much better EGT wise. I had to work it a bit to even hit 1248f. Moral of the story don’t run tunes unless you have a pyrometer. I was surprised the mild tow tune was hitting 1600f. The stock tune is safe to work the truck pretty much WOT. Interesting. It seemed to really spend more time in the 950-1200 range under heavy load. The other tune was fueling too hard I suppose.

 

Probably the tune is OK with a stock cam.

 

Engines running good has about 275-300 miles on it.

I did notice a stored code today P0272 for a cylinder 4 contribution code. I cleared it and it came back once in about a 15 minute span. It did seem to have a slightly rougher idle. Clearer it again and it never came back. Idling very smooth. Between new injectors and new engine I’m not sure if it was just a fluke or some trapped air in the oil as the HPO system only has about 60-70 miles on it. Weird

 

Got a P0272 and P0278 today cylinder 4 and 6 contribution. I could feel a slight miss at idle randomly. Not like you shut off a cylinder but it went from silky smooth idle 640 +- 5 rpm to like 640 +-15 rpm. My wife could not tell but I could feel it.

I totally forgot the 2003 has the VGT relearn strategy and it turns out with EGR valve missing it will not do a relearn. So I reinstalled the valve and cleared the adaptives. It did it’s vane sweeping cycle. Then the VGT Learn PID read Yes. At the same time I noticed the P0272 did not come back. It was idling silky smooth. P0278 only came in one time while driving around today.

one observation was that during the cold start 60F ECT it had a puff of white smoke at initial crank. It’s always had a very light haze until it warmed up to like 90-100. I did see a GPCM code for cylinder 1. Reset it and it never came back, did the glow plug test in forscan and it was no issue. It always fires within 1.5-2 second of cranking.

right now I’m so confused. I checked my fuel pressure 76 psi static and about 74 running at idle. HPO system looks fantastic. These 6.0 engines make you really happy or confused.

blowby looked good today. It was minimal at operating temperature. Maybe I should try a different oil? I mean these are motor craft injectors how could I have stiction with 300 miles? It’s Delo 1300 super 15w-40 and some rev x ZDPP additive. Maybe I should try motor craft oil and see what happens ? I’ll check all my injector connectors tonight and FICM connections.

 

So for those that are getting engines that are rebuilt long blocks, how would one know if they did EVERYTHING correctly UNLESS they themselves tore it down when they got it?

As is being discussed, some people have stated that the surface finishes are not what they should be. But, if the heads are already installed, how could you trust that everything was done right if you didn't tear it down? Why aren't these machine shops doing a better job? A person only needs to look at the deck and can see that it wasn't milled based on the stains like in these photos.

I was going to ask about the larger "marks" on the deck myself but that was pointed out and discussed. I'll admit, I didn't look as closely at the other areas that indicated "fresher" abrasion from a different type of tool. What is going on with these shops that this is happening? Are the majority of people just not giving a crap? What about dealerships that are getting engines from these places? Are their techs not caring as well? I would think that pretty early on as someone complained about this happening that these shops would put a stop to this. But, if it's happening years after they've been in business, that indicates that they just don't care themselves.

 

For one thing, isn't the fuel pressure not supposed to go above about 66 or 68? I can't remember the exact specs but I thought that under 55 was a concern but it should be between 58 and 64 (generally) with anything in the 60s or above being "healthy". I've read different posts though that I think even said that 52 was still "acceptable" but others say no way. So, I don't know what the end consensus was. I could obviously be off but anything in the 70s seems high. But maybe I missed where this was acceptable or perhaps it's okay for your tune or setup. Since you are trying to see what the "stock" tune does, would it be better to have the lower fuel pressure to go along with that? I can't remember if you got different spec'd injectors that are a more high performance / flow / volume or not.

You could obviously go read the oil post that we got into recently but that was long so I'm not sure if you want to get involved in that. Or, perhaps you already read it. I don't know what to say about Motorcraft oil at this point. My truck was already used and I suspect had poor maintenance done on it so my results probably don't matter anyway. I'm experimenting myself to see what's what. But, my oil consumption has improved during this last oil change (with Motorcraft 15W-40) from about 1 quart per 400 miles (obviously bad) to about 800 to 1000 miles (not great but obviously better). For the first few oil changes, I was using Hotshot's Secret Stiction Eliminator and then Hotshot's Secret Friction Eliminator. I decided to use Rev X's oil additive but can't remember if it was the oil change right before this last one with the Motorcraft which the previous oil was Super Tech 15W-40 or if it was with the Motorcraft. I just recently added some Hotshot's Friction Eliminator. I'm going to do an oil change and see what happens with my "other" situation and post on that post. But, I understand our situations are different.

I did notice that my local Walmart recently had some Rotella T6 - 5W-40. I'm not sure if that's something worth considering.

 

Nothing like giving a spec, then say it may vary.





History has shown that some individual engines handle certain oil better or worse. I used T6 a lot, but don't think I'll go back.