I'm shopping around for a good used lower-mileage engine for my 2500. I'm going to attempt to find something still in the donor vehicle and listen to it run. After it's pulled, the idea is to put it on a stand and go over it, clean it, and inspect the crap out of it. I'm going to take my intake off the old motor and install it on the new as it has the Hughes plate already on it. I'm kicking around pulling the heads and inspecting them as well and installing new gaskets. Also rolling it over and pulling the pan, inspect the mains, and maybe install a new oil pump. Obviously a new or rebuilt motor is the way to go, but I just can't swing it, and honestly the truck isn't worth it. So are these good ideas or not? My mechanic buddy thinks it's a waste of time, he just wants to slap the replacement motor in and cross our fingers.

 

Personally if it were me I would check it out and do as much as possible before you put it in the truck. It's a helluva lot easier to work on with it on a stand and not in the truck. Why not go ahead and do as much preventive stuff as you can afford BEFORE it goes in the truck. Just my two cents worth...

 

You can get an inexpensive rebuild kit for a couple hundred..... Rings, bearings, and such. Really wouldn't be a bad idea, as that seems to be where most of the problems come in anyway. If you can find a cheap enough motor, you would still not be too far into the hole on such a deal.

 

I'm not going to rebuild it. If I were, I'd use my existing core. I feel that would just be opening up a can of worms. Don't have the space, time, know-how or the money to do it that way.

 

I just have to throw this in... Almost at the bottom of the page is the $1200 rebuilt "extra long block." That's really not much...

http://www.precisionengine.com/rebui...par/index.html

 

Doing an online search with the "recyclers" (junk yards) I see 5.9's out of 2500's for as low as $700 complete w/warranty; they want a $250 core charge though; says 242 units to choose from.

But locally engines can be as little as $150 at the wreckers. Why not check around wherever you live, see what they want for one.

Most I've ever paid for a used engine was $1200 to my door but that was imported from Japan, everything included (eg air conditioning compressor, motor mounts, sensors, etc), with transmission, warranty, and 25,000 miles on the donor car.

 

That's the plan, however I still want to know what I should consider doing while I have the motor on the stand. That's the prime time to get to the hard to reach places. Should I go ahead and replace the oil pump? What about pulling the heads off?

 

If you have it on a stand there is no better time to rebuild it. If you don't have the money save up a couple hundred more dollars and then rebuild it when you have the money.

It's a used engine, You don't know the conditions of the bearings or rings. You don't know if the oil was changed every 3,000 miles or 30,000 miles. If you don't rebuild now you might be pulling it on 6 months to rebuild anyways.

My uncle owns a muffler shop and one day I was there a guy came in for an oil change. When asked how long it had been since the last oil change he said 25,000 miles. You should have seen the oil that came out of that motor. This was years ago before synthetic oil was popular.

My question is if it's on a stand why would you NOT rebuild it?

 

I say just be sure to do a compression test on the new engine and address the easy things while its out... a new timing chain will help restore and engines pickup after its clocked a few miles... throw in a water pump and thats about it...
like you said its not really worth al the additional work to you... you could spend lots of time and money on the engine only to have the transmission or rear end go a month later from the stress of the new powerplant... there has to be a point where you draw a line.... I spent way more than I planned to on my truck..
Novarider ... rebuilding an engine takes time and additional tools + knowhow and $$.... some vehicles like the ones in the junkyard are there because they get to a point where they are not worth all that additional investment... you cant polish a turd...not saying that what the OP has but just saying if he thinks it isnt worth all that then he must have his reasons... Its a shame to rebuild it and have other things fall apart and have to junk it anyway but it happens... and those rebuilt engines can sometimes be picked up cheap at the junkyard... craiglist is another good place to look...

 

Because it isn't worth it to me.

Have you checked machine shop prices lately? Just calling a couple of places locally, and assuming I take it apart and put it together myself (which I do not have the expertise to do) was almost a grand in machine work, plus rebuild kit, plus misc parts, plus every single little little item you need for a good rebuild adds up to being way out of my league. My brother in law just went thru this, bought a used Grand Cherokee that needed a motor done. He tried rebuilding it and found a hole in the block, got a junkyard motor, thought same as yall and rebuilt it himself with a "buddy" and right after putting it in launched a rod thru the block because neither of them took their time to do it right, didn't have the space, time and money to do it correctly, and basically wasted two grand he didn't have. I'm not rebuilding a motor.

I priced getting a rebuild kit and having machine work done for my 1984 Wheel Horse and it was over $750. A 5.9 V8 is going to be considerably more.

I appreciate the advice, but rebuilding is not an option.