My options, and your opinions.

Jesus Freak

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Oh yeah, my "wild card" engine probably won't happen. I texted ole boy, he's evasive. Oh well. So I'll probably be putting the pistons out of the cavitated block into the turbo. And one day I'll "do it right" with my 30 over 6.9.
 

IDIBRONCO

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Speaking of, how hard is it to actually resleeve one of these engines?
It is a little bit harder to do. These are high nickel content blocks and are harder than gas engine blocks are. It needs a sharp/new cutting tool and possibly a slower feed downward with the boring bar.
eventually I'd just have to buy a thingamajig and do it myself,
I feel that would be cost prohibitive and you'd junk the block first. That's not to mention acquiring the skill/experience/knowledge to use it correctly.
My not-really-related example would be the guy I know who let another guy talk him into buying a lathe to work on gun barrels. The "talker" would never stop over to his house and show him how to use it. He tired working on one gun barrel by himself. The end result was the only rifle barrel that ever had external rifling.
That was after both of them spent three days trying to get it wired up and working. They finally wanted me to stop by and look at it for some unknown reason. I asked the guy who bought the lathe if they had read the instructions. He tossed the instruction manual at me. Instead of unleashing the stream of four letter words that came to mind, I said nothing and looked it over. I casually reached over to the emergency stop button, gave the outer ring a twist, and the lathe came to life. They were speechless. I turned around and left without saying anything else to the, after I explained that I just took the E stop off. The "talker" had been an electrician before he retired so that made me feel that much better. I also have no idea how long the instruction manual laid on the floor before it was picked up. The moral of the story is don't spend big time money on a machine if you have no idea how to make it work.
 

Jesus Freak

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It is a little bit harder to do. These are high nickel content blocks and are harder than gas engine blocks are. It needs a sharp/new cutting tool and possibly a slower feed downward with the boring bar.

I feel that would be cost prohibitive and you'd junk the block first. That's not to mention acquiring the skill/experience/knowledge to use it correctly.
My not-really-related example would be the guy I know who let another guy talk him into buying a lathe to work on gun barrels. The "talker" would never stop over to his house and show him how to use it. He tired working on one gun barrel by himself. The end result was the only rifle barrel that ever had external rifling.
That was after both of them spent three days trying to get it wired up and working. They finally wanted me to stop by and look at it for some unknown reason. I asked the guy who bought the lathe if they had read the instructions. He tossed the instruction manual at me. Instead of unleashing the stream of four letter words that came to mind, I said nothing and looked it over. I casually reached over to the emergency stop button, gave the outer ring a twist, and the lathe came to life. They were speechless. I turned around and left without saying anything else to the, after I explained that I just took the E stop off. The "talker" had been an electrician before he retired so that made me feel that much better. I also have no idea how long the instruction manual laid on the floor before it was picked up. The moral of the story is don't spend big time money on a machine if you have no idea how to make it work.
I agree, but I have an unusually hard time with anyone doing anything for me. So obviously I'm not going into the machining business, but I'm just saying if I ever wanted it done I'd probably have to do it myself.

Edit: I'm autodidact (that means I'm self taught) I can figure anything out....... and I'm crazy......I'd figure it out. I farrier my own horses, and countless other stuff I just don't trust other people to do, I can almost imagine myself machining a block.
 
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Nero

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It would come down to: can you find a machinest that will work for you?

Answer for you: no problem.
Answer for me: the machinest probably wouldn't return my call and Everytime I stopped by the shop he'd be busy or they'd be closed and eventually I'd just have to buy a thingamajig and do it myself, and thus like idibronco said I'd have to consult myself about sleeving my own engine.
Actually I don't know if I have a machinest who'd be willing to take on my spare engine. I mostly want to take it apart for funsies to see how bad the damage is. I'd love to have it rebuilt, but long term, finding someone to do the work would probably sway me from the project, not funding.
Thought about asking Russ, since he's relatively local, but he seems like a busy guy.
 

IDIBRONCO

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The rebuilding part is fairly easy if you've ever done that type of thing before. It's the machine work that's the difficult part.
 

Booyah45828

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Is this it but a little cheaper?

Well that might be the ticket for the 6.9. The description reads right. I don't think there was ever a direct injected 6.9, only the IDI, so I'd say the piston is listed right and they just used a stock image. It's pretty common amongst parts places.

We call that dish a mexican hat, and on a DI engine that would be where the fuel is injected into and is the combustion chamber. An IDI has a pre-chamber, and doesn't need that mexican hat, and instead has the "swirl" area on top to direct the flame front leaving the pre-chamber. Not sure what running a mexican hat in an IDI would do, but it would likely start poorly due to the big loss of compression ratio.

Jensales is big in ag stuff, so it's not like they're chinese or some clueless reseller. I'd give them a call/email and see if they have those pistons in stock, and if they do, have them take and send you a picture of the piston top.
 

Jesus Freak

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Well that might be the ticket for the 6.9. The description reads right. I don't think there was ever a direct injected 6.9, only the IDI, so I'd say the piston is listed right and they just used a stock image. It's pretty common amongst parts places.

We call that dish a mexican hat, and on a DI engine that would be where the fuel is injected into and is the combustion chamber. An IDI has a pre-chamber, and doesn't need that mexican hat, and instead has the "swirl" area on top to direct the flame front leaving the pre-chamber. Not sure what running a mexican hat in an IDI would do, but it would likely start poorly due to the big loss of compression ratio.

Jensales is big in ag stuff, so it's not like they're chinese or some clueless reseller. I'd give them a call/email and see if they have those pistons in stock, and if they do, have them take and send you a picture of the piston top.
Yeah, I was planning on calling them and seeing if they could send me an actual picture. I'm an old tractor guy, so I'm familiar with Jensales.
 

Far Right

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No running second hand engines around the place at wreckers etc??? Sell all the stuffed ones n just swap in a runner?? It’s not as creative but I can promise you from a do everything myself type of guy I’ve finally learnt that even if I only pay myself $10per hr sometimes the cost of doing all this blows out so bad that ur time is way better spent drinking beer n thinking of other stuff to do rather than hate every second of ur life trying to bodge up an old heap of **** too make a rat with a golden tooth. And I have no experience with Ford motors but the old Chevs like I own have the crappest metal quality in heads and block so it’s a throw away swap in a nice one type thing on them, no polishing turds cause it’s still a ****,
 

Jesus Freak

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No running second hand engines around the place at wreckers etc??? Sell all the stuffed ones n just swap in a runner?? It’s not as creative but I can promise you from a do everything myself type of guy I’ve finally learnt that even if I only pay myself $10per hr sometimes the cost of doing all this blows out so bad that ur time is way better spent drinking beer n thinking of other stuff to do rather than hate every second of ur life trying to bodge up an old heap of **** too make a rat with a golden tooth. And I have no experience with Ford motors but the old Chevs like I own have the crappest metal quality in heads and block so it’s a throw away swap in a nice one type thing on them, no polishing turds cause it’s still a ****,
I'm with you for the most part. Im definitely not a crap collector. I throw all sorts of stuff away. And yes, I agree that Chevy motors are a dime a dozen and aren't worth saving. But these Navistar IDI engines are very salvageable, and worth salvaging. The only thing worth saving on a older Chevy diesel is the DB2 injection pump.

Edit: and I actually enjoy messing with this stuff. Im not a "professional mechanic" on purpose, that way I don't dispise turning wrenches when I get home. I could have been a mechanic at UPS making $30-40 hr, but I decided I'd hate working on my stuff if I worked on their stuff.
 
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Far Right

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Yeah righto mate no probs, I’m not into one brand over another ey couldn’t care what’s better at this or that, a good engine is one That’s available and runs annnnnnd never needs touching except servicing, would love a 7.3 in my Ute just rare as hell here, plenty of old army 6.5’s in the country but, if I ever find myself wanting to work on a Ute/truck what ever ya call em I walk up too my vice n crush my nuts in it, because this is far less painful and stressing and expensive then just sitting in my Ute saying to myself “what if it was faster” only takes half a day to swap a motor out, takes way longer than that too pull out pull down inspect measure order re assemble etc etc etc, that’s a lot of good beer drinking time gone right there mate
 

Far Right

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I'm with you for the most part. Im definitely not a crap collector. I throw all sorts of stuff away. And yes, I agree that Chevy motors are a dime a dozen and aren't worth saving. But these Navistar IDI engines are very salvageable, and worth salvaging. The only thing worth saving on a older Chevy diesel is the DB2 injection pump.

Edit: and I actually enjoy messing with this stuff. Im not a "professional mechanic" on purpose, that way I don't dispise turning wrenches when I get home.
That said maybe some is willing to give him good coin for his 3 stuffed engines, say a 20yr old that’s keen to learn n he can go buy a nice clean one some where, u can drink beer filtering oil n making fuel, but hard with Spanner’s in ya hands
 

Jesus Freak

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That said maybe some is willing to give him good coin for his 3 stuffed engines, say a 20yr old that’s keen to learn n he can go buy a nice clean one some where, u can drink beer filtering oil n making fuel, but hard with Spanner’s in ya hands
No one under 40 is really interested in these things. And I don't drink beer, just coffee.
 

Far Right

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Hey hey well there’s a new hobby for ya, go brew some nice beer!! U be a rare find here in Australia mate, all they had to do was say the unvaxed couldn’t drink beer here n 95% of people went n got it without a second thought, I brew my own so that vaccines, I was all for doing everything myself until I built my 3rd boat. I’m well cured now, I do only what I can’t do without, I def do all my own mechanical as here the average mechanic is charging $110 per hr plus tax, or more. For monkey work,
 

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