Rebuilding my 5.9 Common Rail

[Shadrach]

I'm in the middle of rebuilding my engine and I thought I would share the story and some pics.

Background: While looking for a 93 Club Cab with a Cummins to drive while I did the Cummins repower on my 84 Crew Cab I found a " mechanics special " - an 03 Laramie Quad Cab 4WD with a NV5600. The body and interior are in good shape but it " needed a bottom end" I was told. Well I now had a dilemma as I really like the 1st gens and have been driving them since 1980, but this was a nice truck, would be nice for the family and would take me a lot less time to put on the road. So I bought it for about the same amount as I would have had to pay for a good 93. Since I am in Canada, and most of you aren't, I won't get into actual pricing. I did some research and found out it was bought new here in Alberta and the last owner had used it for his daily driver around the Province as well as haul RV's in his spare time. He rarely had anyone else in the cab with him. I was told it had 250000 kms ( about 155000 miles ) on it and since the batteries were stone dead I didn't check it out. After I got it to my buddies acreage I discovered it was actually 356000 kms ( about 221000 miles ). Who would have thought the the dealership would have made a mistake. Oh well - lesson learned. They were selling it as is and the bill of sale did say " unknown mileage ". It had been parked in the Spring of 2007. It has 5671 hours on it. Average speed 62.8 kms ( 40 mph ) about normal, according to others I have seen here.



That was last summer and this Jan we pushed it into his shop and pulled the engine. I had taken off the oil filter already and had cut it open and found a Gold mine. Actually it was a Silver mine as it was full of fillings - not a good sign. The metal was a combo of both metallic and nonmetallic material. I was planning a full rebuild anyway. I put a Mopar filter that I had lying around on it to keep the moisture and dirt out. All I needed was rust complicating things. It appeared, with a few exceptions like the front cover & seal and valve cover, it hadn't been apart before. I haven't found any evidence of any mods either. Even the clutch looked original, although it was near the end of it's life. The alternator bracket was still the original " cracked " one.



To be continued...

Shadrach