All right, I'm sure it's been covered over and over (at least on other forums, couldn't find a thread on it here), but I have a question on repair of a "53" block if it gets cracked. Has anyone seen welding work?

muggyweld

Cummins claims this problem is only 1 in every few thousand engines. From what I found most of the failures are due to high loads on the engine (fleets with 30,000# busses are having lots of fun with cracked blocks). I believe forum boards and such are going to provide a somewhat slanted count of the failure rate, since this is where people would tend to alert others. But, Drew and others are mechanics here, have you guys really seen a bunch of these in the shop?

I don't actually have one of these, yet, I'm purchasing my brother-in-law's 98.5 2500, prety likely it could have a "53" block, so I'm just educating and preparing myself. The truck has 158,000 on the clock and no cracks yet, so I'm pretty confident in the thing, especially since I won't be doing any severe hauling in the foreseeable future.

let me know what ya'll think.

 

where the "53" block normaly cracks is on the exhaust side. the casting is VERY thin on that side, about 5.5mm thick, the later blocks, 54, 55, and 56 blocks are made in Mexico and are 11mm thick on that side. Another downside is the casting can be rather pourous and that also contributes to the cracking. However, there is an up-side. Not all "53" blocks were made in Brazil which is where most of the problems come from. There were two foundries that cast that block, Brazil and Mexico. from what I have read up about it it mostly happens to trucks that do alot of towing, however it can happen to trucks that dont tow. personaly, I wouldnt worry about it. and if it does decide to go, that gives you a good reason to slam a nicely massaged 12 valve under the hood making over 350hp and 700tq at the wheels

Here is a good site that goes into good detail about the "53" block

 

I am curious about your numbers Drew. Are you saying that the 12 valve in my 96' produces that HP and Torque from the factory or do I need to do some mods? Like lose the cat and muffler among other things.

Rhino

 

theres alot more to do than just loose the muffler and cat(if you have one) to get those number.

from the factory a '96 produced 215hp and 440tq for the manual, and 180hp 420tq for the auto and the California manual.

if you want high power from your '96 you would need to tweak the fuel pump, get different injectors, get a larger houseing for the turbo, and adjust the timeing. If I have this right, the '96 was still useing the VP44, it wasnt untill 97 or 96.5 where the cummins went to the more electric P7100.