New engine failures

The local hold em and screw em truck seems like it takes them two tries to get an engine rebuild to hold together. What are they doing wrong I know of 3 and one from another shop big truck engines like 15 liters . The very first engine I ever helped rebuild was in a 5400 John Deere little 3 cylinder John Deere diesel it was a class project and something happened I cant remember what but it lost a bearing or something while on the dyno had to go in and fix that and it ran good after that .

Who knows? But I will say, cleanliness and attention to detail go a long way for having a successful rebuild.
I didn't do lot of major engine work. Usually it was straight forward- take it apart and put it back together. One I particularly remember was a fellow worker tore an engine down, then left on vacation. I never liked putting anything together that someone else took apart! I could see this one coming. What complicated it was a new block was going to be installed. Little things like plugs, orifices, springs, etc- mainly things to do with oil passages/galleys had to be positioned correctly. Things that would have been in place already in the original engine. But, with attention to detail, we got it!

I did my 1030 engine and it spun a bearing the first day. I never did fid a reason, an it's held good after the second rebuild. I replaced the crank with another and that must have been the issue.

Near impossible to find a reputable engine shop around here.

They're either a bunch of hacks that don't care and make their money off the unsuspecting.

Or if they're any good they are so busy they are only interested in the fast and easy money. Show up with a tractor engine they won't even talk to you!

The biggest deal with the new engines is how complicated they are and the next thing is you can't trust the new parts. And if you are talking about Cummings 15l they were lucky to make it off the lot.

Back when I worked at a Deere dealer, we had one guy that rebuilt engines. Just about all he did. I pulled quite a few and delivered them to his engine stand. Would get them back when he was done and reinstall. Same with the rest of the shop. I dont recall him ever having a failure.

SVcummins,

I built a few, From Cummings to Macks, and most other makes in-between. No excuse for an early failure, with the engine out of chassis, and on the stand. Failures are usually attributed to assembly or first start up errors. At least when I was wrenching. I cannot attest to today's parts quality,



Guido

moresmoke,

That was me at Mobil Oil. But I did the rest too! R and R,

Guido

Thats about how the John Deere was we didnt find anything

Im glad I can do my own thankfully

SV,
When I was young and foolish, I rebuilt a few engines.
Now I'm no longer young.
I buy new vehicles. Service them properly.
Let the dealer deal with any issues.
I have sooooooo much arthritis in my hands and arms, I'm lucky to open a ketchup bottle. Too painful.

Never thought I would wear my body out, ultimate engine failure, connecting rod failure.
Looking for snake oil to make me young again.
My problem, my mind is still 30 and my body feels like 100.
Any suggestions???

I have had several rebuilds done in the last 20 years by two different mechanics all have been fine no problems.A lot depends on Who does the work just like anything else there are different skill levels.

SV,,, are you about to get your Cummins running?

I rebuilt the Buda six in my E4. Only other rebuild I ever did was a 2-cyl Wisconsin. Since I'm not experienced I made triple sure everything was right before it was buttoned up. The only thing I screwed up was static timing the distributor. Didn't want to start. I had the points set to open on the wrong side of the cam. Then it fired right up smooth as can be. I was relieved. It still smoked on startup and uses a bit of oil.

You just never know what your getting. I cannot count the number of engines I have built over the years, and I will admit that some I did I am not proud of the way I did them. Those were the hurry up and get it back in service, it will be OK deals that the customer forced on me. With that being said, they all ran fine and did their time, those were all Cats, and all In-frames on 988 loaders and 777 and 773 haul trucks.

The thing I always saw people not do on engines was check the block for main journal alignment, and verify bearing clearance with new bearings. Some engines are more sensitive to this than others. It was always take the parts out of the box and slap them together. I came to the realization years ago to trust nobody and no parts, and check things on my own. Just this year my son was rebuilding a JD 404 of of his 4320, and put a new set of lifters in it. He just took them out of the package one by one and installed them. When he was adjusting valves, #4 intake was not able to be adjusted, it had too much play. Knowing the cam measured out correctly I had him pull the lifter, it looked right, but when we pulled the one next to it, we discovered that the one in question had the counterbore cut .070 deeper. I looked at every box that they came in, and they all showed the right part number.

Someone mentioned Cummins 15L.Cummins does a horrible job on their Re Mans, they re use too many parts that are in spec. I bought 6 ISX 15L engines to replace before failure on some of our Peterbilt heavy haul tractors. I had always gone with factory new replacements in the past, but trying to save a few thousand cost me, as all six of these went down at 12,000-14,000 hours with valve train failures. Cummins also does poorly with other aspects of the reman program, including the 50L engines as well.

I'm talking about specialty machine work.

Hard to build a good engine when the machine work is done wrong.

They don't count on the customer actually checking anything, just trust us and put it back together! Yeah...Right!

(quoted from post at 19:54:08 01/02/22) I'm talking about specialty machine work.

Hard to build a good engine when the machine work is done wrong.

They don't count on the customer actually checking anything, just trust us and put it back together! Yeah...Right!

Click to expand...

If you gut and the repair manual tells ya its out of spec are borderline STOP don't take it will be OK BTDT...

Hard lesson learned not all engines assemble the same read the manual... I am sure some of us could put a engine together with junk it may run till it got out of warranty... Today with expectations it should last 200K are longer its gonna cost ya...

Back in the day when we were racing stock cars and building our own SBC racing engines, we always worked two together when we built an engine. One man did the work and the other double-checked every move he made. We never had any problems we could attribute to the building process.

Then, as our operation progressed, we began simply paying a former driver and professional racing engine builder to build our engines. On the first one he did for us, he put the rear main seal in backwards. I'm not sure he ever lived it down.

I could probably write a thicker book on how not to build stock cars and racing engines than an actual How To book. It did my heart good when I read that one of Benny Parson's NASCAR engines failed because one piston had been installed backwards.

My buddy and I had a deal with the speed shop he worked for. We would pull the engine and deliver the long block to the speed shop. When it was rebuilt we would put it back in and get it running. It was a good side job for us We worked regular speed shop hours ~~~. Noon to Midnight

Oh yes Im very afraid of that I had to check everything ten times to see if it was right

you and i sound alot alike always was building ,working on something on the large farming days,cattle out my yang yang. the later in life did machinery assemble for dealer in my shop,paid better than feeding out cattle ,then the lawnmower dealership sales and rep[air came about from machinery assemble. now days still trying get house done from major lift in 2017 and the formaldyhyde really took things wrong direction. now all i seem to do is visit the er once month think have heart attack but it is always fine,but i am still having heavy burning chest issues tha will not let you do much now days. doc again tomorrow think going to head to mayo

In early 2019 I put together the high performance high RPM engine for my roadster. I have around 5,000 miles on it now and every now and then I push the RPMs a little higher, which is a little scary. I have had it a little over 5000, which is still short of the 7,000 red line. At 5,000 I am up close to 80 MPH which is enough.

Back in the day I saw a number of SBC ruined on startup. It seamed no body knew how to static time. Cranking and twisting the distributer to find the correct timing position will wipe a flat tappet cam. People wouldnt use cam lube either, just pour a can of STP down the valley. I alway used cam lube, pre-lubed and static timed. Most of mine started immediately.

Hopefully in the next couple days