Well bleep!!

[jaluhn83]

Got a nice 2 for one special today.... on bad news!

First I went by the machine shop to pick up my block since it was supposed to have been done mid week. I had it in to get cleaned up and honed preparatory to putting new pistons in. It had ~30k miles on a rebuild so I was expecting to need minimal work. Well I stop by and the owner says "oh, I forgot to tell you, that block needs to be bored and you need new pistons" (I had already purchased and ceramic coated a set of pistons to match the original 0.040" over bore as well as a set of rings) This comes after finding that of my 4 supposedly good heads 2 are junk and one is marginally rebuildable...... We even tried honing the block to see how it'd work and sure enough, there's a nice wear ridge.... 2-3 thousands probably. So now we're either going to sleeve and bore all 8 holes or find another block and bore it... Lovely!!! Oh, and I really rather need to get this truck running ASAP and it's already been 3 weeks messing around with machining.....

Okay, so that's irritating but not the end of the world but then I come home and am working on figuring out the AC condenser and intercooler installation when I suddenly realize that neither the old radiator from the truck nor my spare nearly new aftermarket unit are sitting next to the trailer where I left them...... My first thought is that I put them somewhere out of the way, but I don't really recall doing so and can't find them anywhere.... and it's not exactly like you can easily loose that large of radiator. So the conclusion is that the local low lifes ran off with them for scrap.... GRRRR!!!! Where I've got the truck is in a side yard area that backs onto the riverbed and there's some degree of homeless/rugrat types that hang out down there but we've never seen them come up and bother things. Guess there's a first for everything.... I'm pissed.

Not only did they take the radiator, but it's also got my low coolant sensor installed which may or may not be replaceable...... at least short of spending $200 getting a whole new system. And I had a nice rebuilt heavy duty 4 row radiator...... not exactly the easiest thing to replace.

So I guess now I'm going to have to get one of them Champion things.... More money!

 

[franklin2]

What are the chances that the radiator is sitting down at the recyclers and not scrapped yet? I would think thieves are lazy, and wouldn't carry it too far to get rid of it.

 

[riotwarrior]

Man that's gotta be a right in the berries!

You've done so much and this...*** already.

Thieves need there nuts sliced open and to be castrated like sloooooowly for ***** like that!

Sorry to hear about the block. I've got a 040 over one here I just tore down sleeved on rear two cyl.

If I could get it to you cheap and it was any good I'd give it to you.

I'd suggest the sleeve all 8 and bore to match the pistons you got, though expensive, it would be the best for certain.

Good luck with the build.

Al

 

[icanfixall]

To bore a 6.9 60 over seems like its doable but thats a long ways to bore an engine. Sleeving a 6.9 and then bore it out to 40 over seems like your wasteing plenty of new sleeves too. I feel it would be cheaper to sleeve back to standard and get another set of pistons in the standard bore. then sell off the 40 over pistons. They should sell easy with the work done to them. As for the time this is down.. Well thats a sucky thing to deal with too. Now for the ****** thieves ripping you off for the two radiaters.. Thats enough to boil me right to the point to doing something really bad to them. We wont say in this open forum what that "could" be. But to pollanna it maybe its a sign to upgrade to an aluminum radiater. Champion is just up the 15 freeway from you about 30 miles in Murriata near Elsenor ca. Kind of a nice drive too. You will be driving past the famous Pachanga casino. Might get lucky there...

 

[metalminded]

time to put up a sign.....

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[jaluhn83]

Biggest reason I want to keep the pistons is time. They're decked 0.015" and ceramic coated which took the better part of 2 months to get done and $500+..... How many people would be willing to pay that for a 0.040 set of pistons? Not many I'll bet.

The block work I can get done for a pretty reasonable price and *hopefully* within a week.

I may have located the radiators, though they're in the bottom of a bin of scrap and probably pretty badly crushed by this point if in fact they're actually mine. I'm thinking seriously about the champion..... probably will wind up getting one if I can't get my old one back in good shape. The 2nd one was a cheap aftermarket 3 row so I'm not *too* concerned about loosing it, though still pissed. \

It's partially my own fault for leaving things out, should have known better. Doesn't make it any less of a kick in the nuts though.

Now I'm looking into a motion activated light and/or security camera setup since I've got a lot of other gear stored in the area. The thing I'm unsure of is if the motion light would help or hurt.... would make it harder to get to, but on the other hand everytime a rabbit or something sets it off I've got a nice beacon to draw everyone's attention to my stuff there......

 

[PackRat239]

That is why you never buy any parts til you hear from the machine shop.

Radiator thieves suck. I can not leave anything out or it disappears. But that is usually my brother doing it. I just realized my OBDII scanner is missing from my shop.

 

[PwrSmoke]

Condolences on the string of bad luck. Try to think of it as getting all the crap over and done with in a short period, which often buys you a long run of no-problemo.

Hard to imagine the bore wearing that much in just 40K miles. When I tore mine down at 140K and 23 years, the WORST cylinder had just 0.001" taper and none had any ridge to speak of. And my truck has had a turbo on it since '87 and about 80K towing miles! Unless there are some differences in block material quality over the years (mine's an '86), some of the things that might cause an extraordinary amount of wear would be; a) air filtration issues, b) lubrication issues, c) a combo of both (actually a creating b), d) A lot of short hopping where the engine seldom gets warmed up, e) A lot of fuel dilution and "wet" cylinder walls, e) Hard, hard use.

Just presenting these as possibilities to look at as a way of not repeating this situation down the road. That much wear in only 40K really jumps out as a red flag to me.