Here's a question for you guys, With a high mileage 360 what is the item that fails most often causing the engine to go.

From what I understand it is not the block beacuse of the shear strength of the 360 block.

So is it the coolant pumping resulting it in overheating and warping something?
Dropping a vale?
Oil Pump?
Timing chain?
Heads?

I just did the plenum repair a few months ago and what a difference!!!

The reason I ask is I have a 2001 360 with 310'000 km on it (190'000 miles) and I just want to know if i can put one or two grand into replacing some components so that it doesn't fail in the middle of an rv trip this summer. I have heard of guys getting 300'000 MILES out of these engines without major work.

Or am I just smarter to do a rebuild?

What are your recomendations?

As it is probably the same down in the states as it is up here the used prices of trucks have dropped alot...so now my truck is worth very little. I would rather just sink some money into it and keep it rather then trading it in.

 

At your mileage and stated use (RV pulling), I wouldn't be thinking about putting HP mods on the engine. From what I've seen, the 360 block is pretty strong as truck engines go. The achilles heel is the heads which are very prone to cracking between the valve seats. When this happens, the first thing you loose is compression in that cylinder, and if it continous without repair it has the potential to crack into the water jacket.

If I were you, the things I would check would be cylinder compression, pressure test cooling system, load test the charging system, and test the catalyst condition. If you want to rebuild the engine, definitely buy new HD heads. The stockers are crap in my opinion.

BTW, don't let the tranny get lost in all of this

 

what do these motors do stock 360/5.9 hp/t wise?

 

^245hp/335trq @ crank
180/250 @ the wheels give or take (when new)

 

well i got a k&n cold air and custom catback comes out in front of my passenger side rear tire. soon 1.7 and superchips.

 

your timing chain was shot about 140,000 miles ago. I'm not kidding, They stretch way too soon.

 

I've seen timing chains with less than 10,000 miles on them that were shot.

 

ok, se here is the latest.
I just did a comp test and here are the results

cyl 1 - 150
cyl 2 - 155
cyl 3 - 150
cyl 4 - 145
cyl 5 - 150
cyl 6 - 155
cyl 7 - 130
cyl 8 - 150

or if this is easier to read

Drivers Side bank
cyl 1 - 150
cyl 3 - 150
cyl 5 - 150
cyl 7 - 130

Passenger Side Bank
Cyl 2 - 155
Cyl 4 - 145
Cyl 6 - 155
Cyl 8 - 150


I did the test 2 seperate time and came up with identical results.

I did a wet test on cyl 7 and got 132 instead of the 130's i got both times before.
This means it is not the rings right?

I did put a can of restore in a week or so ago.

Any thoughts for a 192'000 mile motor.

SHould i just leave it the way it is or should i start playing with cyclinder 7?

 

cylinder 7 has more than 15% difference compared to the other cylinders. If the compression DID NOT rise once adding oil in #7 cylinder, then it is NOT the rings. If the motor doesn't burn any oil and you have good oil pressure, I would run that engine into the ground. Unless you have deep pockets, you can go ahead and rebuild it

 

I agree that you should just run it. technically there is room for a 20 psi difference (according to Haynes) so although it could be a cracked head etc, there may in fact be nothing wrong with your engine (if you feel optimistic). If you develop a mis or other symptoms it wouldnt hurt to dig a little deeper. Mine went 260k without overhaul so i'd say yours is just a pup!lol