Bought myself a christmas present

[02dirtymax]

I got a good deal on an 02 Duramax engine and Allison transmission tonight and my plan is to sell the transmission and keep the engine around to build as funds allow. I'm sure I am living on borrowed time considering my signature. I don't really know alot about engines but I have learned alot about the Duramax in the last few years. I had never even seen under the valve cover of an engine before I tackled the headgaskets on my 2004 california emissions LB7 (in truck!!!) I would like to build this motor myself for the most part to make it a learning/beer drinking experience and let my boys learn a thing or two also. The guy was told that he needed a new motor or a rebuild because his bearings were shot. It was puking oil out of the driver's side exhaust manifold. The harmonic balancer feels solid and it turned with ease with one hand after sitting for 8 months. The small town dealer that told him the engine was bad had never done anything besides injectors on a duramax before. The pistons looked good as far as I could tell with a flashlight and my naked eye. I couldn't catch anything with my fingernail on teh cylinder walls. What is the chance that it was just a headgasket? What else are the possible causes of puking oil out the exhaust on one side? It had 120K on the clock and it only had a superchips programmer on it. Injectors were replaced about 30K ago and he said he filled the crankcase with fuel a few times then which is whey he agreed to the bearings being bad.

 

[RPM Motorsports]

Bet it was just a stuck injector. I had an lb7 fill one side Of the exh. Manifold with fuel, it looked like eng. oil but was just fuel/soot mixed.

 

[02dirtymax]

If it was a stuck injector would one of the pistons look really clean? They all look pretty much the same- kind of dirty.

 

[duramax3388]

I could of been a return line leaking or something as simple as that. But it sounds like it needs broken down And looked at make sure there's no damage.

 

[02dirtymax]

It will be gone through completely. I plan on doing a build as funds allow. Right now I am just taking it apart and playing. Both heads are off, now I need to buy an engine stand so I can look at the bottom end. Does anybody have any instructions/guidance for assembling and disassembling the short block?

 

[timlb703]

Mark and measure parts as they are removed. Helps to make a folder with info. Much Easter to figure out problems down the road.

 

[02dirtymax]

I pulled the main caps last night. All of the bearings have a lot of copper showing. The three in the middle were the worst. Does this mean they are wiped? The guy I bought it from was told the main bearings were shot (but it wasn't taken apart to verify). I couldn't feel any play or anything on the balancer and it turned easily. I'm still trying to figure out what happened to this engine. The guy was beating the crap out of it playing in the mud and then had oil coming out the exhaust. He thought it was the turbo, replaced that, still had oil coming out so he brought it in and discovered it had oil coming out the driver's side exhaust manifold.

I've got to pick up a 12pt 36mm socket tonight to pull the balancer so I can get the crank out. It looks fine to the naked eye.

 

[Dirtymaxx03]

You're gonna buy new bearings anyway I hope.

 

[02dirtymax]

Definitely will be getting new bearings. Just trying to come up with what went wrong with this thing.

 

[messejme]

If u see copper than the babbit has worn away. U need bearings and to check the crankshaft.

 

[02dirtymax]

Thanks. #3 main bearing was the worst and I can feel some slight grooves in the crank on that one.

For all of those that complain about how hard the bolt is for the harmonic balancer........ My wife did it. I was scared my engine stand would break so I stacked pallets under the engine and held it while she hung off the end of a 4' jack handle trying to get it broke loose. After bouncing on it for a while it finally cracked loose and scared the heck out of her. It was pretty funny. I am definitely learning what order not to take a duramax apart in if you want it to be easy. It is a learning experience and I have already learned quite a bit.

 

[02dirtymax]

Here are some pics of the bearings (1-5, from left to right), close up of the crank at the #3 main bearing, and the driver's side pistons and exhaust manifold since it was the side with oil coming out of it.

 

[02dirtymax]

Got it stripped down to a bare block. Now it is time to play the lottery so I can buy rods and get it put back together.